Opinion

  Christian leaders have become a play thing for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Osinbajo gives himself the liberty to talk down on them at will, taking them to the cleaners without justification. Osinbajo himself is supposed to be a top-flight Christian leader and more so the highest office-holding Christian leader …

Governor Udom Emmanuel has diligently in the last three years of leadership followed the words of Thomas Fuller, an English Churchman, that “Charity begins at home but does not end there”, and this is evident in his uncanny disposition to evenly distribution of projects across the three senatorial districts, federal …

  turnpot@gmail.com  0705 263 1058 May you live in interesting times! It is apt to remember this payer of the late Dr. Tai Solarin today; for these, indeed, are interesting times in our much-abused country Nigeria.  And not only are the times interesting, they are equally troubling. The more you …

  Though he died unsung,   Pa   Ichiogu  Ikpeazu, the great Umuobiakwa  goldsmith, still lives on. Exceptional genes do not die. He produced a teacher, Nwaon­o (nono)  and the teacher produced another teacher, Okezie.     If we could rewind the hand of the clock and call the dead back to life,  Pa …

  turnpot@gmail.com  0705 263 1058 Whatever name called and under whichever administration, the Ministry of Power is jinxed. When it was called the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), it was a supplier of darkness instead of light; causing Nigerians to change its name to Never Expect Power Always. As Power …

  turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 Our people have a saying, to wit: Someone who chanced on a lost item says he will rather die than part with it; what does he want the person who lost the item in the first instance to do? This saying aptly describes the cry-baby …

Time flies fast. It is incredible how it flutters. It has been a year since I started walking   with Governor MA Abubakar of Bauchi state. August 1st precisely marked a year since I left my comfort zone in the newsroom where I was lord of the manor. Where I was a …

President Muhammadu Buhari in Lome, Togo strongly pitched for the setting up of a regional security architecture in the West and Central African sub-regions, giving clear indication that there is a convergence of strategic interests among the countries of the two sub-regions on security. In his address at the three …

turnpot@gmail.com  0705 363 1058 King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1: 9 – 11 says: The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may …

  turnpot@gmail.com 0705 263 1058 “Those who vote determine nothing. Those who count (record, and announce) the votes determine everything” – Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union’s maximum dictator. Many have described the Saturday, July 14th governorship election as the war of proxies. Some have also said it was a case of …

I’ve seen him address the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Seen him speak at AU (African Union) summits. Seen him address the European Parliament at Salzburg, France. Watched him speak to the world a number of times at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). And on Tuesday, July …

*FG promises protection of intellectual property, investment For two days, American investors and chieftains from the technology and entertainment sectors of the US and indeed global economies took turns to listen and actively interact with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, and the Nigerian delegation drawn from the public and private …

  Generally, two sets of factors affect the outcome of elections in Nigeria: The negative and the positive. The looming governorship election in Ekiti state will be no different.  Negative factors include election rigging: Thuggery and violence, ballot box snatching and stuffing, multiple thumb-printing or voting; falsification of election results; …

The Chinese conceived  the grand Road and Belt Initiative(RBI) as a strategic agenda to change developmental politics of the world. Almost five years after, the RBI is yielding results that even the worst of critics are now acknowledging. RBI is truly disruptive of existing order; it was a daring subtle …

 A Communique from a forum on the Nigeria Petroleum Industry Reforms: Understanding the elements of the Petroleum Industry Governance (PIGB) Bill held recently at the Auditorium of Emerald Energy Institute (for Petroleum & Energy Economics, Policy, and Strategic Studies), University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.    Preamble The oil and gas …

  It is sad to receive another news of massive killings and destructions of over 200 lives and millions worth of properties of Plateau state citizens. I understand similar attacks are ongoing in parts of Taraba, Adamawa, Zamfara, Kaduna and Benue States amongst others. I have been inundated with calls …

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been depicted by its implacable critics as a cesspool of corruption and for a good measure too. Over the years arguably, no agency has the axiomatic Nigerian strand of sleaze been more manifest than the state owned Oil giant whose reputation has been …

 FACT: The Federal Government’s programme of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of former agitators in the Niger Delta region of the country as part of the Amnesty Programme brought calmness to the country at its commencement. It floundered and wobbled due to irregularities until the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari put …

  In this column last week, I applauded and defended the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) to honour the late MKO Abiola and his vice presidential candidate, Babagana Kingibe for their victory in the June 12, 1993 elections, a victory which had been denied in the last 25 years. …

  Let’s give it to Buhari and his advisers. Whoever suggested making June 12 the country’s ‘Democracy Day’ (rather than May 29, which it has been until now) gave the Daura General a master stroke. It was a decision that especially excited the sensibility of the South-west– even more than …

  An old Chinese proverb says: Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil. This short proverb sums the intensity of attacks against President Muhammadu Buhari, not leaving the ratcheting up of violence in some the States after a period of relative calm, in the wake of the political tsunami …

  This piece was inspired by avideo of the Kenyan National Prayer Breakfast, which recently went viral.  In that video President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga publicly offered apologies to each other over the contentious and acrimony-laden 2017 presidential election in the country. Uhuru Kenyatta, 56, is the …

  What was meant to be a “triumphal entry” for Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the APC candidate in the July 14 Ekiti governorship election, to Ekiti state to start his campaign last week turned awry as a result of a shooting incident that left many seriously wounded. Mercifully, attempts by APC …

  One area in which the Nigerian economy visibly suffered in recent years was the drawing down of its foreign reserves, at a time of plenty. When oil prices hit over 100 dollars per barrel, and stayed there for many years, the immediate past administration inherited the reserves from President …

The trip to the grotto was smooth, except that there were rainstorms and windstorms followed by lightning during a downpour.  I set out 6pm on Thursday, May 31, and, shortly before midnight, I was sitting by the cave, waiting to hear from the ORACLE.  My mission?  Last week, this column …