Our Columnists

  • Governor Uba Sani of Lagos State.
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    The Famished Road To Kuriga

    It’s heart-wrenching to think that even though we’re told that Kuriga and other affected parts have been cut off from communications, we still hear of the criminals asking for ransom and issuing threats!

    The journey to Kuriga in southern Kaduna, North-west Nigeria, did not start with the kidnap of 287 students last week. In the early 1990s a neighbouring town, Zango Kataf, was the boiling point. About a decade later, the beast of sectarian violence, which had reared its head in Kaduna, surfaced several hundreds of miles away […] More

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  • The Nigerian Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
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    Rolling Blackouts, Heatwave And Tales From Dead Bulbs

    Private power supply has become the main source; while public supply, if you ever get it, has become the back up.

    I don’t know how it is in your part of town. But it’s been a nightmare in mine, a supposedly middle-class residential area in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital. Rolling blackouts do not begin to explain the depth of the misery. It’s been a dreadful time of rolling and erratic blackouts. Like surfing an angry wave, […] More

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  • President Bola Ahmed Tinubu / Photo credit: Guardian
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    Will The Humble Pie Heal ECOWAS?

    While ECOWAS said it offered amnesty to its delinquent members on “humanitarian grounds”, the response from the military leaders in Bamako, Conakry, Ouagadougou and Niamey, has been mockingly indifferent.

    The resolutions following the Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), at the recently concluded summit of Heads of State and Government in Abuja, were truly extraordinary. Seven months after threatening to deploy force in Niger, one of the four delinquent states – the others being […] More

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  • Tunde Odediran: Even in the darkest days of military rule in Nigeria, I doubt if lack and hunger was this ravaging, widespread and excruciatingly painful / Photo credit: opengovpartnership.org
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    Dear Nigerian, You Architected This Problem!

    From adapting to economic changes to integrating new ideas or electing responsive leaders, citizens as designers remain at the forefront, ensuring that the structure mirrors their desire.

    If we accept that design matters in erecting great structures, then the economic hardships facing Nigerians right now is their own making. Nigerians, as collective designers of their democracy, have been poor in vision and execution and must take responsibility for erecting the leadership, political and economic mess that everyone is now an expert at […] More

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More Columns

  • Former Kano State Governor and APC Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje / Photo credit: newsdigest.ng
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    APC Digging Its Own Grave In Edo

    If Nigeria’s elections – party, local council, state or federal – has taught anything, it is that as surely as a stumble precedes a fall, shambolic primaries lay the foundation for turbulent electoral outcomes and unstable governments.

    Nigeria’s politicians have perfected the art of burying themselves with one foot sticking out. And it appears that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will, once again, stage this rite of self-destruction in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State. The party’s primaries on Saturday was such a shambles, it has now been forced to conduct […] More

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  • Inpector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
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    A Nation Held by Kidnappers

    When kidnappers begin to release waves upon waves of attacks in the federal capital and a former federal minister can publicly speak about his participation in raising ransom that kidnappers demanded, we are in big trouble.

    The economy has not been looking that good for ordinary Nigerians for many years. Inflation has spiked, people can’t find jobs and the politicians live large. Inevitably, inequality is leading to higher crime rates, as desperate people are forced to try whatever will allow them to get ahead. New types of crimes are spreading, but […] More

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  • President Macky Sall of Senegal / Photo credit: Aljazeera
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    Sall Taking ECOWAS From Frying Pan To Fire

    Tinubu needs to remind Sall that it was he, Sall, and Nigeria’s former President, Muhammadu Buhari, who led the regional response to flush out Yahaya Jammeh in neigbouring The Gambia when Jammeh was on the verge of disrupting the outcome of the elections there because they did not favour him.

    As the troubled Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convenes its Ministerial Council meeting in Abuja on February 8 to discuss the quit notice served by three of its members – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – the situation in Senegal might well be the elephant in the room. Three weeks to the presidential […] More

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  • Plastics waste in Lagos State / Photo credit: Punch
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    Styrofoam Ban: Lagos Is In Great Company But…

    The government can also tax those products – to discourage merchants and manufacturers from dealing – on one hand, and like Rwanda did years ago, give tax breaks and other incentives to companies ready to recycle, on the other hand.

    A popular video circulated the Nigerian Social media circles last week. In the said video a gentleman excitedly retold the news of the Lagos State Styrofoam ban. With the number of shares and re-shares in different platforms, it’s obvious that the gentleman is not alone. It’s understandable though in a country like Nigeria that appears […] More

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  • ECOWAS / Photo credit: pmnewsnigeria.com

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    ECOWAS: Is This The Beginning Of The End?

    Members already weakened by internal crisis and political wranglings are not sure whether to use force or not even though they can see clearly that negotiations are heading nowhere.

    Mali and Burkina Faso obviously have a lot more in common than squaring off in a game of football like they just did in the Round of 16 knockout stage of the African Nations Cup (AFCON), in Cote d’Ivoire. Along with Niger, these countries have been a great source of misery for the continent in […] More

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  • Former President Donald Trump / Photo credit: middleeasteye.net
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    Back To The Donald Trump News Cycle

    Except something strange happens, it is all but certain that the Republican Party will present a leader of the insurrectionists, who will stop at nothing to break the law.

    Donald Trump is back in his game and people are wondering if he can return as the most powerful man in the world. Could a man who left the American presidency just three years ago amid confusion and irregularities return to the White House? I have this “egbon” in Nigeria whose infatuation with American politics […] More

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