Category: Opinion

Scene of the tanker explosion. Source: @trafficpalava, Saturday’s tanker explosion at Dikko, Gurara LGA, Niger State, which claimed 98 lives is another grievous reminder of how the Nigerian government has repeatedly failed its citizens. Scores of people were also injured, and properties were destroyed. The Niger State Emergency Management Agency said the victims were buried […]

The irrational exit package recently approved by President Bola Tinubu for military top brass highlights the troubling disparity in allocating public resources for retirement benefits. In Nigeria, military generals, governors, and top politicians retire into opulence funded by the public purse. Conversely, civil servants and ordinary soldiers endure delayed pensions and financial uncertainty. This growing […]

The controversy elicited recently by the construction of 40 units of residential apartments for Judges of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Federal High Court and The Court of Appeal in Abuja underscores the expectations for a truly independent judiciary unencumbered by any constraint or compromise. On the one hand, some people feel strongly […]

It was barely 16 days after President Bola Tinubu was elected chairman of ECOWAS that Abdourahmane Tchiani illegally removed Niger Republic’s President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup on July 26, 2023. Since then, things went haywire not just between Nigeria and Niger but also in the region. Neighbours should relate better. ECOWAS hastily announced […]

By Tunde Odesola I told this true-life story to my children a long time ago. But I censored its indecent climax because of their young age. Today, I’m going to tell it in full because they have come of age. I don’t mean this story to be a comedy. I mean it to be a […]

By Pius Mordi At the peak of the campaign in 2013 to package an amnesty programme for Boko Haram terrorists who were wreaking havoc in the northeast, an enormous pressure was brought on then President Goodluck Jonathan. Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, widow of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, pleaded that a general amnesty be granted to the […]

As many governors remain reluctant to implement the new national minimum wage of N70,000, it has become imperative that they rethink, given the harsh economic situation Nigerians are going through. The authorities do not have to wait till the burble bust from the workers’ union, as the Nigeria Labour Congress has warned. Besides, the new […]

Human-trafficking The festering rights abuse, killings, exploitation, rape, and horror associated with human trafficking over the years have made it compelling for the government to devise a comprehensive strategy to check this “modern slavery.” According to a report (Al Jazeera), Eniola (not real name), 28, abandoned her domestic work in Nigeria and jumped at the […]

By Tunde Odesola The good, the bad and the ugly incidents that fetishised the ‘Ember’ months, notwithstanding, the year 2024 rolled off Earth’s cliff two days ago, plunging into the domain of history. For most Nigerians, 2024 was a plummet down the valley of penury, like the restless Jabulani ball, scissors-kicked over the bar by […]

By Abimbola Adelakun It has now become something of a yearly tradition that someone would share a video of hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of beggars lined up on one of the priciest real estates in Nigeria—Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. Already always striking in Nigeria, the paradox of poverty and prosperity jars your eyes. These […]