Category: Opinion

THE Nigeria’s Southern Governors Forum has demanded that the President of Nigeria should come from the southern part of the country in 2023. In a communique during their last meeting in Lagos in July, the 17 governors recommended that the office of the president be made rotational constitutionally among the six-geopolitical zones in the country. […]

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed The precarious state of Nigeria’s (and indeed Africa’s) public debt was re-echoed recently by eminent economic experts across the continent. This cry coming from renowned experts appears to be what the country needs at this time of economic emergency to hopefully, convince the policy makers […]

If a bill currently before the House of Representatives runs its full legislative course, Nigeria’s riotous and ideologically deficient political culture, which is plagued by rampant defections by the political class, may soon be sanitised. In essence, this could also signpost a new and commendable reality in party politics and a boost to democracy in […]

By Robin Wright On June 16, 1976, thousands of Black South African children poured out of their classrooms to peacefully protest the government’s decision to forcibly teach them in Afrikaans, the language of Dutch settlers. As a young foreign correspondent, I covered the chaos as police fired noxious plumes of tear gas and then live […]

By Idowu Akinlotan Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu is a very fortunate man. Referencing the split decision of four to three that gave him victory at the Supreme Court last week, he went back to judicial history to insinuate that he didn’t just win by the skin of his teeth, but that counting from the […]

By Adekunle Ade-Adeleye Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, once again denounced the attacks he believed democracy was being consistently subjected to in the present dispensation. Democracy was endangered, he wailed, and could be cancelled out by dictatorship if Nigerians did not resist the attacks or were not vigilant enough. […]

By Femi Adesina How did you feel watching Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, inspecting the just completed multi-million dollars bridge at Ikom, Cross River State, early this week? Any person of goodwill, not overtaken by bile and ill will, would feel proud to be a Nigerian. Such people would be proud of […]

A man looks at newspapers at a newsstand in Abuja, Nigeria June 5, 2021. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde By Tony Afejuku In the big spirit of our broad democratic tongue, mind, heart, eyes, nostrils, ears and skin, this column is devoting today to some ardent followers of it. It is letting some readers pour their hearts out […]

In the last week, there has been some convergence of words of caution about the dangers ahead if we refuse to make hay while the sun is still shinning. In other words, the time for restructuring and redirecting the ship of state is now. Even as these calls are being made, self-interested state actors are […]

A man looks at newspapers at a newsstand in Abuja, Nigeria June 5, 2021. Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde By Tony Afejuku Journalists are bandits. There is no doubt about it. And if the journalists are Nigerians they, to all intents and purposes, cannot but be the worst bandits who belong to the very worst set and band […]