Opinion

After 60 years of independence, we are still deceiving ourselves about governance in Nigeria. While it is true that the country has been steadily heading towards catastrophe since 1999, the cumulative effect of inactions is manifesting now. The problem did not just emanate with the current administration, it simply reared …

I am notoriously no fan of Olusegun Obasanjo, General, twice former president and co-architect with other past leaders of the crumbling edifice that is still generously called Nigeria. I have no reasons to change my stance on his record. Nonetheless, I embrace the responsibility of calling attention to any accurate …

turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 You may have heard the story of the very unfortunate encounter between Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi 11 (the father of the present Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111) and prominent politician and Action Group deputy leader, Chief Bode Thomas. According to Wikipedia, Chief Bode Thomas (October …

I watched with rapt attention the video that you made for the people of Edo concerning the 19th September gubernatorial elections. Indeed, no matter where we are from, we are all part of a social web of life that supports and sustains us. So, I want to thank you for …

Mr President is in the eye of the storm recently for bravely realizing the inevitable expungement of the fuel subsidy in Nigeria, brave due to the extreme furore and knee jerk reaction by some gullible and credulous Nigerians, who are convinced that, this decision is most inhumane and anti masses. …

It is a factual error to conflate the subsidy uprising of 2012 and the crisis of 2020. True, both speak to a national emergency, but the circumstances are starkly dissimilar. Nigerians that marched across the nation in the harmattan-scorched January of 2012 were actually protesting a touted rising economic tide …

turnpot@gmail.com Reports making the rounds on social media are to the effect that one Opeyemi Owatimeyin has been whisked into detention by security agents, specifically the DSS or SSS, after his arrest at Iyara, a town in Kogi state. His “offence”, the reports continue, was pamphleteering. Owatimeyin reportedly was distributing …

turnpot@gmail.com 0705 362 1058 The much talked-about Edo State governorship election comes up next Saturday, 19th September, 2020. The run down to the election has exposed the underbelly of the country’s politics, such that it not only leaves much to be desired but also leaves a sour taste in the …

To state that we live in challenging times is perhaps an understatement and does very little justice in accurately capturing our current realities. Those realities include a world faced with a pandemic the scale of which hasn’t been seen in 100 years. The crisis has crippled economies, destroyed global supply …

In continuation of his unwavering commitment to improve the living standards of Rivers people and prepare every sector in the State to be fully ready to adapt to the millennial challenges of a fast changing global society, the Rivers State Government, on August 31st, 2020, signed contracts for the rehabilitation …

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” posits management thinker, Peter Drucker. And that was one of the reasons that got the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to embark on a 2-day Performance Review Retreat for its Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, and other top functionaries. The event held Monday and Tuesday this …

turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 An authoritative report once described Nigerians as the happiest people in the world. That report came as a surprise to many because, even as at that time many years ago when things were not as parlous as they are now, Nigerians were nowhere near some of …

turnpot@gmail.com 0705 263 1058 In addition to the rants and chants on social media, subtle diplomacy is ongoing on CAMA by church leaders whose umbrage at government – and the public’s outrage against CAMA – has been as vociferous as they have been ferocious. Religion is a matter of the …

The strife is o’er, the battle done. But it was by no means easy. It took so much: tact, diplomacy, guts, deft footworks, prayers, yes, prayers, and so many other things. But today, we can noise it all around. Dr Akinwumi Adesina is now elected for another five-year term as …

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed the concern of his administration about the sudden spiral of food prices, at a time when the economy is already mired in a slowdown occasioned by the global coronavirus situation. The President assures Nigerians that the situation is transient. His administration has already begun looking …

turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 It is a little over 40 years since Dr. Walter Rodney died; the Guyanese radical historian, political activist, academic and author of the seminal “How Europe underdeveloped Africa” was assassinated on 13 June, 1980 in Georgetown, Guyana. Born on 23 March, 1942 in the same Georgetown, …

The controversy over the revised (and perhaps questionable) 2020 version of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) has taken on a life of its own. “Comply or be doomed,” the leadership of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) was quoted as saying a few days ago. “Away with the amended …

turnpot@gmail.com 0705 263 1058 Bishop David Oyedepo of the Winners’ Chapel has become the whipping boy and fall guy of those defending CAMA for good as well as for bad reasons or motives. Interestingly but not surprisingly, many of the critics are supposedly not just Christians but also church leaders. …

I am borrowing the title of a 1975 book by Nkem Nwankwo to express my thoughts today. Published by Heinemann African Writers Series, it is the story of postcolonial Nigerian society, and the social climbing that attended it. As a young schoolboy, one grew up on the staple of such …

turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 Nigeria’s Ivory Tower fought long, bitterly and hard against the country’s combination of whining civilian administrations and their virulent, military-dictator counterparts to snatch for itself the limited autonomy it enjoys today, allowing it a measure of independence and respectability. In times past, university administrators were glorified …

Those who had been stoking the fires of divisive politics and fanning the embers of the politics of bitterness in Rivers State, were given a rude shock on Monday, August 24, 2020, when Dr. Chidi Julius Lloyd, a staunch chieftain of the Rivers State All Progressives Congress, APC, walked into …

The attention of the Rivers State Government has been drawn to an article titled: “Edo Polls and Threats of Violence” published in the Politics page (Page 14) of The Nation Newspaper, August 24, 2020. Unfortunately, the entire write up leaves a sour taste in the mouth and a disturbing realization …

turnpot@gmail.com 0705 263 1058 Karma or the Law of Karma is an expression usually used – though not exactly appropriately – to mean comeuppance or reward for an evil that someone has done. According to Wikipedia, Karma means “the result of a person’s actions as well as the actions’ themselves. …

The Bini word “Nosagie” (“Osagie” for short) translates roughly as “the one sent by God”. For incumbent Edo governor, the invocation of “Godwin” undoubtedly served as a talisman in his electoral conquest of 2016. For his second-time challenger and serial contender since 2007, however, the omens seem rather sufficient this …

Let me give the background to this piece. I was reading some comments on Twitter early in the week, when I ran into this one by one Dr Ben Gbenro: “Why are some people allergic to good news about Nigeria? You are angry about the test-run of Lagos-Ibadan rail, you …