Opinion

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 …

Remark by Ambassador Lot Egopija, Consul General of Nigeria in New York, USA, at the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial program at Essex County College, Newark, New Jersey, USA on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.  Protocol I consider it a great honour to be invited to this auspicious occasion, …

Excerpts from the Remarks by Ambassador (Dr) Motumisi Tawana, Consul General of South Africa in New York and Chairman, African Consuls General Group (ACGG) at the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Event held at Essex County College in collaboration with the ACGG on 24 January 2023.  Protocols Let me …

    A leader like Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand doesn’t come in tens. Not even in twos. And so, it was such a bright day on October 26, 2017, when she took office as New Zealand’s Prime Minister. She was 37-years-old and also the youngest head of government at …

turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533 I must have read a story with the same or similar heading above sometime in the past but reading it or something similar again this week, I took more interest in it in view of the ongoing “japa” phenomenon that is emptying Nigeria not only of …

I was scrolling through Twitter when I came across this post from @ChifeDr real name Dr. Aloy Chife. “I have a Ph.D. And I’m very proud to be called “Igbo trader.” I will clean toilets if the money is good. Has decades of elevating work-shy little men into positions of …

Monday, 23 January, 2023 General Ibrahim Babangida’s Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) had just finished its weekly meeting. What ministers do with the present occupant of Aso Rock, Abuja –praise and worship – was the lot of IBB then at the Dodan Barracks, Lagos. Toady appointees in abject servitude fawned …

The theatricals for winning the hearts and minds of the voters are all around us. The perceptual game of showing strength in the number of supporters is an age long effective game plan for the parties, and it is one strategy that cuts across all parties. All political parties are …

Poverty in Ogoni, a southeastern indigenous community in Nigeria is extreme, making it one of the most unattractive destinations for resettlements and tourism in Nigeria. But while the agonizing misery paints a rather gloomy picture for the future, its political leadership have exploited and weaponized it to win elections. Ogoni …

The continuing harassment of the central bank governor questions the integrity of the secret police, writes Bolaji Adebiyi   By the time the week ends tomorrow, it would have been an interesting one that began with the dramatic return of Godwin Emefiele, the embattled governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, and …

This is the season of high-wire politicking, and some contenders and wannabes are talking tough on rescuing Nigeria from ruin once they are elected as the country’s President. Anybody elected as the President of Nigeria in this woebegone time must have as the first item on his agenda the organization …

Bola Ahmed Tinubu is – of the 18 candidates in the February 25, 2023, presidential election – the least deserving of the exalted office. His candidacy is, to be charitable, an affront to decent political sensibilities on all sides of the world. Yet, he appears to trend in the media …

A prophet has no honor, except in his own country, says the Good Book. This was on display once again in Nouakchott, Mauritania, early this week when President Muhammadu Buhari stood ramrod straight to receive the Africa Award for Strengthening Peace, given at the 3rd edition of African Conference for …