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The National Minimum Wage Act that came into force on 18 April 2019 prescribed a five-year review cycle. For that reason, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had the law on their side for the strike that paralysed the country on Monday. But even if some of us have issues with shutting down […]
Continue ReadingIn my 1994 book, ‘Fortress on Quicksand’, which chronicled the presidential primaries of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) and profiled the contenders during the aborted Third Republic of General Ibrahim Babangida, I wrote that it was glaring to the discerning that the experiment would not last. I had the same […]
Continue ReadingLast Sunday, for the fourth time in a row, Manchester City Football Club won the English premiership title. And because of that, ‘enemies of progress’ have not allowed some of us to rest. Even more annoying is that many of the noisemakers actually supported teams of little consequence in the title race. But in Nigeria, […]
Continue ReadingMr. Aderemi Adeoye retired yesterday as the Commissioner of Police (CP) in Anambra State. By his own admission, his net worth is now N20 billion! And he has set his eyes on displacing Alhaji Aliko Dangote as the richest man in Africa within the next ten years. I am also quoting him. “I have been […]
Continue ReadingLast Thursday, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar doubled down on his allegation that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project is “a highway to fraud”. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election was countering claims by the Works Minister, Dave Umahi, whom he accused of dishonesty. “Umahi had announced that Hitech would […]
Continue ReadingStraight from Kuje Prison in Abuja, convicted gunrunner, Hamisu Bala (popularly known as ‘Wadume’) was received with a hero’s welcome to his hometown of Ibbi, Taraba State, on Sunday. He was reportedly driven round town in a long convoy of vehicles before visiting the palace of the traditional ruler, Alhaji Salihu Danbawuro. While many Nigerians […]
Continue ReadingMonday, 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 […]
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