Opinion

Nigeria is a land of forgetfulness. We live in the bubble of the present. Everything about us is in the present tense. When General Babangida in his first broadcast to the nation as a Head of State said “I know Nigerians very well” he meant to say that Nigerians forget …

I was witness to history on Friday last week. I’d been invited to attend what was called NNPC Cutover Ceremony at the corporate head office of the burgeoning National Energy Company in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory. What did the event mean, in simple English. NNPC was completing its transmutation from …

Dear Nigerians, this election is not about Tinubu or Atiku or Obi. It is not about a Yoruba, Fulani or Igbo candidate. It is not about Easterners or Westerners or Northerners. No sir. It is about you and I. It is about the urgent need to fix systemic dysfunction brought …

He has been celebrated for years by his army of acolytes as the grandmaster of political strategies. His reputation was further burnished, and his place atop the country’s political pyramid confirmed, by the historic triumph of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections. He led the political …

Monday, 20 February, 2023 (I am calm. I am calm. It is the calm before something awful – Sylvia Plath, American poet and short story writer). Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Professor Ango Abdullahi, was asked by the Sunday Tribune in an interview last week if he didn’t …

It is now a cliché that this election is a make-or-mar election for Nigeria. It is our way of saying this is a consequential election. The importance of this election has dawned on everyone, and unlike every other election before it, it is the first election post military era that …

turnpot@gmail.com 0705 263 1058 The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it – Karl Marx. Last Friday as I engaged in my usual house chores of washing my dirty clothes to exercise my limbs, I heard a sermon. By His …

Ahead of the February 25, 2023 critical presidential election and subsequent elections in March 2023, Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, addressed the country he has been in-charge of since 2015. First, as a legacy note and transition speech, retired General Buhari’s efforts on Thursday, February 16, 2023 were inadequate. …

It is most likely the last Council of State meeting to be chaired by Muhammadu Buhari as President, and it held on February 10, 2023, at State House, Abuja. It was a hybrid meeting, with some attendees physically present, and others online. Former Presidents/Heads of State on parade included Gen …

Monday, 13 February, 2023 Ancient Oyo people found it very convenient to follow the Alaafin to Koso (where kings are made); they balked at following the Alaafin to Bara (the king’s burial place): Kòso ló se é b’óba rè; Barà ò se é b’óba lo. Nigeria’s politicians do not lick …

How does one measure success in life, career, business, or politics? There are different yardsticks for different folks. Some measure success based on the material quantity one accumulates, while others measure it based on the quality of life one gets. Some assume it is both and, to a considerable degree, …

They say the apple does not fall too far from the tree. While that aphorism may be as trite as they come it contains a large and discomfiting grain of truth. When the APC presidential flag-bearer Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that he was throwing his hat into the ring for …

The greatest surprise of the political season in Nigeria today is without question the almost overwhelming presence of Peter Obi. The man has teeming admirers and unappeasable antagonists, but either-or, he can hardly ever be ignored. A journalist’s duty is to almost always to wade into every subject in popular …

Monday, 6 February, 2023 The naira exchange affliction of 1984 rose up a second time in 2022 and spilled into 2023 because it has always been the choice of Nigeria to submit to vultures. Don’t fail to listen to Chief Bola Tinubu who philosophised in Osogbo last week that despite …

Nigerians are facing the reality of scarcity of cash literarily. Banks are overwhelmed by angry customers demanding money, the ATMs are flooded with furious Nigerians struggling to withdraw cash, and some spend the whole day hoping to get a few Naira notes to pay bills. POS operators complain of a …

Everyday men abuse women. Until in recent years, such abuses went unreported. Nowadays, due to advocacies by gender activists, violence against women and girls now feature more prominently in the media. Even with the level of publicity that it receives, gender activists insist that gender-based violence remain largely under-reported. In …

  Nine unbroken days of work and travel came to a slight pause on Tuesday with a final hurray at Jigawa State, where President Muhammadu Buhari and his team commissioned legacy projects at Hadejia, Birnin Kudu, and Dutse, the State capital. The peregrination had started in Bauchi, to Lagos, Dakar …

At first, he appeared to be the most unlikely candidate for the task. After his fifth attempt at running for Kenya’s presidency, surely Raila Odinga is finished, done. The only thing left perhaps was how to update his memoirs. But who needs nuggets from a loser who couldn’t put them …

Football tacticians and lay statisticians will tell you that when a player is sent off the pitch, the probability of the team losing widens by over 60% and it makes no difference whether they are playing at home or away. This is the situation facing Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC’s …

Monday, 30 January, 2023 Listen to Senator Bola Tinubu Wednesday last week in Abeokuta: “If you want to eat palm kernel, put a stone on the ground; put a palm nut on it, take another stone and smash it on the palm nut. The nut will be cracked and the …

Nigeria’s general election, the largest democratic exercise in Africa, begins on 25 February. All the parties and candidates are jostling to get the voters’ attention and convince them to vote for them in the elections. The wait is palpitating, and the electioneering campaign drama is thus far exhilarating. Everything but …

January 29, 2023 In a piece I wrote entitled A O M’erin J’oba At Tinubu’s Colloquium (April 1, 2018) I warned that the man who has now become the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was making a strategic mistake in assuming that Buhari loved …

As Nigerians file out to elect a new President on February 25, it is imperative to remind the electorate that a country’s future and destiny are shaped by the choice of personality they elect as President.  Entrusting a country’s leadership and resources to someone with impaired vision and dubious national …

The Origins of Imperialism. The origins of imperialism must be traced to Western Europe since the ancient times Before Christ. The territorial exploits of Alexander the Great, “The King of Macedonia” and “Conqueror of Persia” are well known in history, includingthe acquisition of Egypt. The city of “Alexandria” is today …

Anambra State Governor, Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, has made the case for the release from custody of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as a crucial means of stemming the pervasive insecurity of the Southeast geo-political zone. Soludo has stressed that if the …