Playing The 1998 Abacha Power Game In 2026

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

It was Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French critic, journalist, and novelist, who, in 1849, coined what has become an enduring proverb: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more they stay the same. In matters of governance and power in Nigeria – military or civilian – nothing can be truer.

*Tinubu, Abacha

As editor of the Sunday Diet newspaper, I was in Maiduguri in April 1998, yes the selfsame Borno State capital that has become a killing field, to cover the national convention of the Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM. Borno was the home state of Alhaji Gambo Lawan, the national chairman of the GDM, one of the five political associations that included the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP; Congress for National Consensus, CNC; Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN; and the National Centre Party of Nigeria, NCPN, formally approved by the electoral umpire – National Election Commission of Nigeria, NECON – in September 1996 for the politics of that era.

Nigeria: Amidst The Stark Reality Of A Rudderless Country

 By Sulaiman Salawudeen

There comes a time in the life of a people when they must confront unsavoury truths about their own existence and ask themselves whether what they call a country actually really exists beyond and is anything more than just a hollow shell! Nigeria, continuously touted as Giant of Africa, has become a phantom, mere geographical expression without substance, a tragic experiment that has failed its citizens so egregiously that many are compelled to declare: Nigeria is nowhere anymore!

To such, what is seen is just vast expanse of land where millions of people are trapped in survivalist struggles, condemned to navigate daily horrors of insecurity, corruption, and economic strangulation. The very essence of a functioning country has evaporated, amidst the din and flurry of errors that collude to reduce modest hopes to tall dreams, and basic pursuits to unreachable imaginings! 

When Prices Rise In Nigeria, They Rarely Fall

 By Osilama E. Osilama

Nigeria today faces a troubling economic paradox. Prices rise quickly when economic conditions worsen, yet they rarely decline when those conditions improve. This phenomenon—experienced daily by millions of Nigerians has quietly evolved into one of the most dangerous distortions in the country’s economic structure.

Though I am not an economist, it increasingly appears that Nigeria operates what could be described as a “one-way economy,” where prices move easily upward but almost never downward. The implications of this pattern are profound, particularly for the housing sector and the survival of the Nigerian middle class.

If Nigeria must build a fair and functional economy, government must confront the economics of pricing through deliberate policy reforms and, if necessary, a strong executive bill supported by legislation.

Daniel Bwala’s Offence Against Decency

 By Alade Rotimi-John 

Irish born playwright and critic-at-large, Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an intolerable thorn in the flesh of the British establishment for more than half a century. He is popularly quoted as saying that when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. 

 *Daniel Bwala and Mehdi Hasan

Before a stupefied global audience, Daniel Bwala who doubles as President Tinubu’s Adviser on Policy Communications was  deplorably dull and awful as he outrageously defended his bewildering actions in office as being in the role of performing his duty or in the tour of duty. 

Chants Of Treason: No Water, No Electricity, No Food!

 By Owei Lakemfa

A diplomat from the Group of Seven, G7, countries in March 2026, invited me to dinner in Abuja. The first thing he asked was how I was coping with water supply. The diplomatic mission, like some others, is suffering disruption of water supply. I explained that since I relocated to Abuja from Lagos a quarter of a century ago, I had dug a borehole for my water supply. 

Diplomats from industrialised countries complaining of constant water supply disruption is understandable for they do not experience this in their countries. But for the Nigerian people who may need to sit, squat or stand on the mandate of politicians, such complaint might border on treason.

On March 25, 2026, a certain 38-year-old Hamisu Abdullahi, a father of four and a ‘common’ carpenter, had the audacity to make such a complaint. 

Peter Obi And 2027

  By Chuks Iloegbunam

Whoever believed that politics operated only on certainties? Or that imponderables were never factored into any of it? The Nigerian experience is blatant. It placed a spreadsheet before all-comers and delivered new truths. 

*Peter Obi

A loudspeaker who previously believed that he was the custodian of all the answers, jetted at public expense from Abuja to London, where, inside a studio, he nestled in accustomed comfort for a long-scheduled media interview. However, he soon discovered to his chagrin that his buttocks had gone into a disagreeable embrace with a spikes-matted platform. 

“Suddenly becoming talkative like weaverbird/Summoned at offside of dream remembered,” to quote from the first movement of Christopher Okigbo’s ‘Siren Limits,’ acrimonious voices of political certitude rose in unison. Peter Obi obviously had a hand in the fiasco. Mr. Obi lived in London for decades, and, during that period, probably struck a friendship with Al Jazeera’s Head-to-Head anchor Mehdi Hassan. 

Top 10 Happiest Countries In Africa In 2026

 Nigeria Is Not Among Them...

“Money doesn’t buy happiness,” Elon Musk once said. Yet how people live, earn, and cope with daily realities still affects their overall well-being.

That is part of what the World Happiness Report 2026 tries to measure. The report ranks countries using indicators such as income, life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceived corruption.

Across Africa, the latest ranking shows how these factors continue to shape people’s experience of life.

Here are the 10 happiest countries in Africa in 2026.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE REPORT

Highland For Kumuyi In Thailand

 By Banji Ojewale

Among Thailand’s over 71 million citizens are some one million+ Christians boxed into Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, along with other independent groups like the Church of Christ in Thailand, CCT,  which is considered the oldest and largest Protestant umbrella organization in this southeast Asian kingdom.

*Pastor Kumuyi and his wife arrive Thailand 

Muslims post a figure of 7.5 million. But there’s an overwhelming majority of tens of millions of followers of Buddhism, one of the globe’s largest faiths which teaches an oriental version of Stoicism. Founded about 3000 years ago by Gautama Buddha, it is the national non-theistic religion and philosophy of Thailand.

Our Electricity Conundrum And The Power Minister’s Apologies

 By Adekunle Adekoya

It was actually very pathetic reading reports of apologies made by Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu, earlier in the week. Reading his apology nearly made me puke; they were the words of a politician used to, and schooled in, dressing up inefficiencies in mandate actualisation with rhetoric.

For years, since I was a boy (that’s as far back I can remember), this country has struggled with electricity. My late father (Chief Adewale Adekoya, 1933-2017), like millions of others living or dead, hoped many times in his lifetime that the problem would be solved; it didn’t till he passed on. Adelabu’s words: “I want to apologise to Nigerians, officially now, coming from me as the Minister of Power, for this temporary issue that is leading to hardship being experienced, especially during this dry season, where there is so much heat everywhere,” he said. He then went on to remind us about what we all know, and are already suffering.

PDP’s Shameful Disservice To Nigeria

 By Olu Fasan

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is comatose on a deathbed; it’s on life support. The doctors (INEC and the judiciary) are colluding to switch off the life-support machine. They believe the party needs euthanasia or assisted suicide. Yet, what’s really needed is to remove the external factors that interacted with PDP’s genetic predisposition to cause its disease.

But virtually all of PDP’s children (governors and legislators), who should fight to save its life, have abandoned it and joined its enemy, All Progressives Congress, APC, which is behind the external factors. However, one reprobate child (Nyesom Wike), a bully, who works for the enemy but “remains” in PDP, wants to “hold it down” for APC’s Bola Tinubu, and use the PDP’s structures to help him win re-election as president next year. 

Total Rebuke of Retired Justice Isa Ayo Salami’s Baseless Assault On The Judiciary And The Rule Of Law

 By Aguiyi Joseph Obinna 

In a courtesy visit to the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in Ilorin on Tuesday, retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, unleashed yet another round of unverified political commentary that has once again exposed his fatally flawed character. According to the Vanguard report, Salami declared that Peter Obi “ought not have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election” because, in his words, “by the time he lost the PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to INEC” and the Constitution forbids independent candidacy. 

*Ayo Salami

He drew a parallel with Kano Governor Abba Yusuf and blamed “incompetence” and “bad eggs” among judges for these “wrong verdicts.” This is not the sober reflection of a retired jurist; it is the reckless rant of a man who has repeatedly been shown the door by the same judiciary he now seeks to ridicule, only to be pitied back into relevance. 

Misplaced Tears Over Iranian Leaders When Blood Flows In Nigeria

 By Adekunle Adekoya

The war in the Middle East, being fought by the United States and Israel against Iran, is still raging, and its outcomes are being felt all over the world. In the early days of the war which began February 28, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the aftermath of air strikes on selected targets in Tehran, the Iranian capital. Khamenei’s death occurred as part of a wider joint operation by the United States and Israel, using strategic locations intelligence from the US’s Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, to determine the whereabouts of several Iranian leaders.

Now, Khamenei was not only Iran’s Supereme Leader, he was also acknowledged as the leader of all Shi’a Muslims worldwide. In Nigeria, Shi’a Muslims are organised under a mission called the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, promoted and led by a cleric, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky.

Tinubu’s UK Visit: Britain’s Gains, Nigeria’s Pains

 By Owei Lakemfa

It was, undoubtedly, a difficult time for President Bola Tinubu to visit the United Kingdom, UK. Yes, he is a regular visitor. In fact, since he became Nigeria President on May 29, 2023, he has visited the mother country at least nine times, including spending weeks at a stretch on private visits and “working vacation”.  

*Tinubu, King Charles and Queen Camilla

But what made his March 17-19, 2026 a “monumental visit’ is the fact that this was a State Visit. He was received by King Charles, one of those I refer to as a gainfully unemployed individual, GUI. He was also received by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a politician difficult to pin down to principles.

When Educated Illiterates Rule, Society Is In Trouble

 By Owei Lakemfa

Fuel prices in Nigeria went up an average 40 percent within days of the United States, US, and Israel attacking Iran. Diesel prices went up 50 percent. This development shot up prices of transportation, and more Nigerians who cannot afford the price hike took to trekking.

Mr.  Peter Obi, former Anambra State Governor, lamented the plight of Nigerians and the devastating effects on industry caused by recurring fuel price hikes. He argued that these rapid increases illustrate how vulnerable to external shocks the country’s economy is, and how quickly we are impacted by foreign events. In his analysis: “The reason for this is straightforward: most countries, whether they are oil-producing or non-oil-producing, maintain strategic petroleum reserves to cushion against supply or price shocks. This means that when there is a disruption in the global oil market, they can release part of these reserves to stabilise supply. However, Nigeria lacks such a buffer, so the impact is felt almost immediately.”

State Police: Tinubu Is Pushing Nigeria Towards A Disaster

 By Olu Fasan

Recently, President Bola Tinubu unceremoniously sacked Kayode Egbetokun as Nigeria’s 22nd Inspector-General of Police, IGP, reportedly for expressing strong reservations about the creation of state police. Tinubu swiftly named Tunji Disu as the new IGP.

Disu immediately declared that “state police has come to stay” and set up a panel to develop a framework for establishing it. So, one senior police officer lost his job as the nation’s top cop because of his principled opposition to state police; another clinched the prestigious job by enthusiastically embracing the idea and showing willingness to give the president what he wants.

Middle East: Is Nigeria Ready For Another Oil Windfall?

 By Marcel Okeke

While the entire world remains on edge following the United States of America-Israel military strike on Iran last weekend, one of the upshots of the incident has been a remarkable surge in the prices of crude oil. As the conflict is yet unfolding and spreading across the entire Middle East, crude oil production, logistics and distribution are getting encumbered or crippled.

As a ripple effect of the crisis, prices of oil have spiked, busting expectations and projections by stakeholders and analysts. For Nigeria which has built its 2026 budget of N58.4…. trillion on oil price assumption of $64.85 per barrel, the surge to over $90 per barrel (at a point) looks, in all respects, like another windfall in terms of the resultant huge foreign exchange (FX) revenue inflow.

In Nigeria, A Judge Is Not Above Or Beyond Investigation

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged…. Bible, Matthew 7:1-2 (NKJV)

In the first six months of 1986, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered two judgments with far reaching consequences for the lives and careers of two senior judges of the High Court. If the facts were to recur today, 40 years later, neither of these cases would come to trial. This fact says a lot about how the standards of judicial conduct and ethics as well as accountability for both have evolved – for worse – over the intervening period.

*Odinkalu

Donald Ikomi was a judge and Chairman of the Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal of Bendel State when – together with his cook, Reuben Udoh, and one Martins Ekezoka – he was arraigned in December 1985 on a charge of murder.

After 30 Months, Nigeria Returns With Ambassadors, Fumbling

 By Owei Lakemfa

Thirty months after recalling all Nigerian ambassadors, and 15 months before the end of its four-year tenure, the Tinubu administration on March 6, 2026, unveiled ambassadors for Nigeria.

*Tinubu

In the first place, the recall of the ambassadors in September 2023 was myopic. It resulted in the country having no ambassadors at a time the world was on the boil, and our West African region was falling apart.

It was also embarrassing that for over two years, government was unable or incapable of appointing new ambassadors.

But as the administration rolled out the names of the new ambassadors and their supposed countries of posting, I sensed the absence of professionalism in the process.

Nigeria: These Voodoo Electricity Bills

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Power(electricity)is one of the subsectors of the national economy that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government has failed to revive from its hitherto moribund status.

Nigeria has had energy poverty as one of the severest challenges undermining the prosperity of millions of Nigerians for decades. Electricity poverty is one of the causes of underdevelopment in Nigeria.

The Daniel Bwala Al-Jazeera Interview With Mehdi Hassan

 By Kingsley Moghalu 

The Daniel Bwala interview with Mehdi Hasan on AlJazeera ‘s Head to Head program was a disaster of gargantuan proportions for Nigeria as a country, for President Tinubu’s administration, and for Bwala himself. Of these three, the last is the least important, because Bwala’s track record speaks for itself. 

*Bwala and Hassan 

The interview made a spectacle of Nigeria, not just because of the reach of the program globally, but also the format in which there was a global audience in the room itself. What will EACH of those people think about Nigeria after such a fact-based shredding of the country’s leadership and its performance? It was a sad commentary on Nigeria’s political culture in which there are no beliefs, no policies, no ideology, just crass opportunism and the battle for political power.  Turn-coatism is “it”.