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Monday, the 2nd of April was marked globally as World Autism Awareness Day. Despite the millions of families who grapple with the challenge in our country, the day passed us by without much awareness. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that about one in 88 Nigerian children is on the autism spectrum. That means we have more than two million autistic children […]
Continue ReadingSince the conclusion of my ‘missionary journey’ to Aso Rock almost 14 years ago, I have written more than a dozen columns on the need to reform the budgeting process in Nigeria. Notable ones include ‘The Illusion of Budget Performance’, ‘Budget War and Dysfunctional Envelope System’, ‘Buhari and the Budget Palaver’, ‘Nigeria’s 2016 Zero Budget!’ and ‘Of Government and Budget Blues’. The kernel […]
Continue ReadingI read a pathetic report last weekend of how the family of the late Second Republic Senate President, Joseph Wayas, was made to pay the sum of £6,710 (more than N13 million) before being allowed to sight his body in a London morgue. Wayas died on 30th November 2021, so I assumed he had been buried. Apparently, […]
Continue ReadingWith his supporters turning the Kirikiri (Lagos) Maximum Security Prison into a pilgrimage site, authorities of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) were forced to move the condemned Founder/General Overseer, Christian Praying Assembly (CPA) Church Worldwide, ‘Daddy G.O., His Holiness, The Most Honourable Dr Rev King’, to Kuje Prison in Abuja. Not long after, according to sources, the same […]
Continue ReadingOn Monday, military authorities in Guinea dissolved the interim government it had put in place since June 2022. They pledged to appoint a new administration. We recall that Colonel Mamady Doumbouya toppled President Alpha Conde in September 2021, in a coup hailed by many Guineans. Conde invited it upon himself by forcing through a controversial […]
Continue ReadingGodswill Akpabio (then Akwa Ibom State Governor) once stated that only the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan could guarantee peace in Nigeria. At an interdenominational church service beamed live on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) network on 2 January 2015, he declared: “As a PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) chieftain, I have found the solution to the peace we […]
Continue ReadingFuji musician, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, aka KWAM 1, has been the official ‘palace entertainer’ for almost a decade. Evidently through the instrumentality of then All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his ‘Nigeria, Sai Baba, Sai Buhari’ song that preceded the 2015 general election was a campaign anthem that also elicited an […]
Continue ReadingFormer Governor of Cross River State, Mr Donald Duke, has a great deal of archival materials and enjoys discussing historical issues. Last week, he sent me a treasured publication that speaks to our country’s past and may help explain some of the challenges we grapple with today. ‘The Nigeria Handbook 1919 (Issued with the approval of the Nigerian Government)’. Compiled by […]
Continue ReadingI was taken aback on the evening of 9 January 2009 when my principal, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua asked, “Who is Prophet Joshua?” I wasn’t sure how to respond in case the late cleric had been recommended to him. Apparently sensing my unease, he explained what led to the question. Following the Economic Community of West African […]
Continue ReadingThis is not the best of times for the Nigerian judiciary. Then serving minister, Mrs Pauline Tallen, sucker-punched a court decision last year, describing it as a ‘Kangaroo judgement’ and the echoes now reverberate. A respected former Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) president, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, alleged last week that Supreme Court Justices operate like a […]
Continue ReadingDuring the crisis that followed late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s medical trip to Saudi Arabia in 2009, a number of prominent Nigerians advocated that the proper thing was for him to resign from office. Those who canvassed this ‘principled’ position at the time enjoyed not only media limelight but also public adulation. One was a certain Rotimi Akeredolu, the current Governor […]
Continue ReadingOn 17 January 2017, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jet mistakenly dropped bombs on settlements harbouring Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) in Rann, Kala Balge local government area of Borno State. Fifty-three persons died on the spot while no fewer than 200 others, including humanitarian aid workers of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), were seriously […]
Continue ReadingCiting widespread irregularities, Malawi’s Constitutional Court in February 2020 annulled the result of the May 2019 presidential election which returned then incumbent President Peter Mutharika to power. In the court-ordered re-run election held four months later, the main opposition candidate who previously came second, Lazarus Chakwera, was declared elected in what remains unprecedented on the continent. While Kenya’s Supreme Court in 2017 became […]
Continue ReadingAt the height of the Naira Redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which eventually unravelled as a ‘Naira Confiscation’ exercise in April this year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released a ‘Trade and Development Report’ on the situation across Africa, with special reference to Nigeria. “A shortage of […]
Continue ReadingFor the past several years, the joke in Abuja is that whenever Nigeria encounters dire financial straits, the late General Sani Abacha looks down on us from beyond and drops a hefty sum into the national coffers. While I disagree with a friend who insists that Nigeria may have used Abacha for money rituals, more […]
Continue ReadingFollowing the death in December 2019 of Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu, then representing Imo North, a by-election had to be conducted to replace him. The fractious primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that followed produced many ‘winners’, each of whom went to court claiming to be the party’s candidate. With a multiplicity of court injunctions, it was […]
Continue ReadingI had just arrived Abuja from Beijing, China on Monday when news broke that Nigeria won its case against Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited, which had been seeking enforcement of a controversial $11 billion judgement debt in its favour. The Commercial Courts of England and Wales upheld Nigeria’s prayer that the said gas processing […]
Continue ReadingMy February 2013 column, ‘Public Service in Private Interest’, related how our public service has proven incapable of mobilizing scarce resources for the advancement of the common good. “While the world is tending towards smaller and more efficient government, what we have in our country today is a behemoth that largely serves its own interest”, […]
Continue ReadingLast Sunday, ‘Premium Times’ reported that President Bola Tinubu had decided to appoint Olanipekun Olukoyede as the substantive chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). A legal practitioner, Olukoyede served as secretary of the commission for two years before he was suspended along with Ibrahim Magu (then acting chair) and a few other […]
Continue ReadingLast Friday in Las Vegas, United States, Duane Keith Davis, popularly known as ‘Keffe D,’ was arrested after a grand jury indictment for murder with use of a deadly weapon. Although Davis was brought to court yesterday, his arraignment was deferred till 19 October while he remains in custody. He will be tried for allegedly killing Tupac Shakur, the legendary American […]
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