Opinion

Monday, 30 October, 2023 Before Abuja, there was Lagos as our Federal Capital. And this is where I would want to believe that there is something about our North and Federal Capital Territories. Before independence and immediately after independence, Lagos had a succession of two ministers of Lagos Affairs, both …

There is a deafening silence in the land over the state of the economy. No right-thinking person can take this silence or mood of the nation for granted. This eery silence is invariably linked to a cost-of-living crisis, exchange rate crisis, uncanny economic uncertainties and other unfavourable economic variables hovering over Nigeria …

October 29, 2023 Is there any connect between law and public opinion or judgments and public opinion? Before Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad’s (rtd) valedictory speech at the Supreme Court last Friday, the connect or disconnect between those two had begun to assume a life of its own. The presidential election …

Life will inevitably involve failure, but it can also provide invaluable life lessons. Resilience and success both depend on having an optimistic outlook. With this kind of thinking, people can see failures as opportunities for personal development, for enhancement of their ability to solve problems; and for preservation of their emotional …

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, 60, is a medical doctor and retired army captain. But he has not had a job after retirement 37 years ago. His day job since has been bandits’ advocacy. He has become so used to getting away with saying what he likes when he likes and how he likes …

Tribalism is the ism topping all isms! All the talk of Socialism, Communism, Humanism and so on must now be put on one side to make way for the true king of the jungle: Tribalism! Of all the isms of the whole wide world, the most triumphant ism is without …

Two highly-connected characters have their hands soiled in circumstances climaxing in the tragic death of 27-year-old Afrobeat Rapper and Musician, Mohbad, on September 12. Sam Larry is one. This music promoter and Lagos socialite flaunted his heavy connection with the high and mighty, climaxing in him posting a selfie with …

From the small handguns of the 15th century to the sophisticated machine guns and other small and light weapons of our time, the world has suffered mayhem and wanton destruction due to the rightful and wrongful use of these weapons. In the hands of non-state actors, these weapons are used …

Monday, 23 October, 2023 Susanne Wenger was famous as Adunni Oloriṣa. The BBC in 2008 described her as “white priestess of ‘black magic.'” A Nigerian said she was “white priestess of an African goddess.” Until her death in 2009, she was the custodian of Osun Osogbo grove and everything connected …

October 22, 2023) Father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, must have had the conversation last week between Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the recently cleared Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) Ola Olukoyede in mind. While propounding the theory of what is now known as Freudian slips …

We gather to pay our respects and bid farewell to a remarkable individual, Professor Joe Ogbonnaya Irukwu, our own very dear, Dee Ogbo, as most of us fondly called him. He was a pioneer and doyen of the Nigerian insurance industry, who left an indelible mark on the sector and …

I grew up thinking that a judicious mix of crime, sex and money might not only help a publisher turn a good profit but could also be the catalyst for a better society. But my friend, the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of NaijaTimes, Ehi Braimah, subscribes to a slightly different model. When he …

One day, several months ago, I was on a flight to Abuja with a Senator who said to me, “Prof, you need to warn your Chairman; the way he is going, he is not going to get a second term because we are not going to confirm him.” My response …

Being Text of the Annual Lecture Delivered by His Excellency, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, CON, Former Governor of Ekiti State and Former Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to the Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA) on Wednesday 18 October, 2023, Abuja, Nigeria. Protocols Allow me to start by celebrating the …

The talk of oil thieves across the waters of the Niger Delta has made me to remember the journeys I undertook through the seas and waters once upon a dangerous assignment in my journalism doings. It was a journey of immense wonder and danger sailing on the waters of the …

After a house detention spanning two years, Nigeria’s Sunday Igboho earlier this month finally secured his freedom from Benin Republic. He did not return to Nigeria. He jetted out to Germany. Igboho, 56, a Yoruba nation separatist and whose real name is Chief Sunday Adeyemo, ran afoul of that Francophone …

Dear Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, Before I proceed to the crux of this letter, let me partly introduce myself to you. I am one of the many who shouted themselves hoarse while standing on the altar of morality, legality and rationality to call for your crucification during your ordeal with the …

Monday, 16 October, 2023 If history were a child, the Yoruba would insist on calling it an Abiku. History keeps climbing the chimney and, in Wole Soyinka’s voice, yelling at us: “I am Abiku, calling for the first/ And the repeated time.” And with J.P. Clark’s opening glee, his entrance …

There is fire on the mountain. It seems too far away, and the fire looks more like a smouldering fire than a volcano. However, the molten lava is simmering in the belly of the volcano, waiting to be unleashed. No matter what we do, although living in a faraway land, …

Some lawyers expressed worries last week that in the aftermath of the 2023 elections, political petitions have congested the courts, crowding out and slowing other matters that are equally essential in nation building, economic and social development. At the swearing in of Appeal Court judges recently, the Chief Justice of …

October 15, 2023 Why do Nigerian public officials always fail to see the divide between the public and the private? Perhaps taking a cue from their parents, children of successive Nigerian presidents have also made this a pastime. A recent example is the reported cruising in Nigeria’s presidential jet by …

This is the moment the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu always feared with great anxiety. Yet when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Southern Israeli border towns in the early hours of October 7, Bibi and Israel’s elite security forces were unprepared. In a bizarre fabrication intended to complete …

About 40 years ago, you were called to glory in a highly baffling, unexpected, very suspicious and mysterious circumstance. You were in your house in Benin City when they came for you uninvited. They beckoned on you like the proverbial deceitful serpent to accompany them to where you knew not. …

Nigeria has reduced itself to the butt of the crudest jokes all over the world. Forgery at the highest echelon of power in the land has put a bad patch on Nigeria in the eyes of astonished commentators across the globe. Trust Nigerians to defend abject malfeasance along partisan and …