When Hypocrisy And Doublespeak Define A Nation

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On October 1, 66 years ago, Nigeria gained flag independence from Britain. Within these years, the country reached another milestone – 27 years of unbroken civilian rule, which many confuse as democracy. Ours is not yet a democracy. 

*Tinubu during the 66th Independence ceremonies

It may well be with time, but democracy and civilian rule are poles apart. In a civilian rule, power is concentrated and recklessly abused by the political elites without public oversight but the idea of democracy calls for something more fundamental: it requires popular participation, free and fair elections and strong institutional checks and balances.

Tinubu’s Disappointing October 1 Message

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Not a few Nigerians, especially me, expected that there would be something to hold on to when the President made his speech commemorating our National Day, October 1, yesterday morning. 

*Tinubu

As a newspaperman, I read the message more than three times, looking for that strand of a message that could give hope that at the end of the tunnel in which we have been thrown, there would be a glimmer of light, signalling hope that things would begin a turnaround for the better.

Alas, like so many other countrymen and women, numbering in scores of millions, it was not to be as the president opted to grandstand on what he thinks are achievements. The same old chorus, now sounding like a broken record, was recited to us — necessity of reforms, NELFUND, Credicorp, and all that. There was no talk about how we would soon pay less for petrol, diesel, cooking gas, or electricity.

Soludo’s War On Obi: To What End?

 By Olu Fasan

The ferocity, persistence and intentionality of Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s attacks on Peter Obi must strike many as inexplicable, even abnormal. Soludo is the current governor of Anambra State; Obi is a former governor of the state. 

*Obi and Soludo

While both belong to different parties and have divergent political interests, it’s hard to fathom why Soludo is traducing Obi so ferally, even using state machinery. Indeed, the fact that the Anambra State government itself is fighting Obi makes the attacks more damaging. 

The governor and his administration are calling Obi a “liar”, striking at the hearts of the values of character, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, etc., that Obi claims define him and on which he anchors his presidential ambitions. Clearly, Soludo and his government are “demarketing” Obi, telling Nigerians he’s not what and who he claims to be. But what’s Soludo’s endgame? To what end is the animus?

Babafemi Ojudu Writes An Open Letter To Bola Tinubu

Open Letter To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

My dear brother,

Welcome home. Today, as Nigeria marks the anniversary of her independence, we are reminded that the promise of freedom must find meaning in the dignity, security and well-being of our people. I hope your time away has brought you some rest and renewed strength.

*Tinubu

The months ahead will test you as a leader and as a candidate seeking another mandate. More consequentially, they will test our country.

I write because I believe you need to hear, plainly and from someone who wishes you well, how difficult life has become for many Nigerians.

Where Did This Hatred Between Igbo And Yoruba Come From?

By Funlayo Ademola-Adefolaju

It wasn't like this when I was growing up in the 60s, 70s.

This deep hatred I see now between Igbo and Yoruba on Facebook breaks my heart, because this is not the Nigeria I knew.

Dave Umahi And His Lies!

 By Nchee Nwabunnia

Dr Akanu Ibiam from present day Ebonyi State was the Governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. That was made up of the entire South East, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. He was the Governor from 1960 to 1966. 

After the military interjection came the second republic, Jim Nwobodo came in 1979 followed by C.C Onoh in 1983 as Governors of old Anambra State. Both were from current day Enugu State. The military struck again. 

Abia was created and Ebonyi became part of it. The third republican Governor of Abia was Ogbonnaya Onu from current day Ebonyi state. The military interjected again.

How Long Can Nigeria Go Under Tinubu?

 By Promise Adiele

I have always been fascinated by a phrase in the marital vows of Christians during wedding rituals: “till death do us part”! My candid understanding of the submission is straightforward – husband and wife accept that the only thing that can come between them, to put them asunder, is death, that final arbiter of human existence.

*Tinubu

Another marital expression that amuses me is: “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder”. The big question is – how many marriages did God join together? Many times, the speed with which some couples abandon the “till death do us part” vow bewilders my critical mind.

An Open Letter To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

 By Stephanie Shaakaa

Gboko, 24 September 2026

Mr. President,

I am writing to you from Gboko, where government is not experienced through communiqués or presidential briefings. People meet government when they go to the market, when they travel to the farm, when they pay school fees, when transport fares rise and when they have to decide which household expense can wait until next month.

*Tinubu and Macron

But that is not the whole story of what it means to live here.

I am also writing from a place where fear is not an abstract word. In Benue, news of another attack is no longer something people encounter only in newspaper reports. Communities have been attacked, families have lost relatives and farmers have been forced to think carefully about whether it is safe to return to their fields. On September 10 and 11, an attack on Ayilamo in Logo Local Government Area left four police officers and seven civilians dead. Four days later, two more police officers were killed in an ambush while returning to the same community.

The Case For Renaming My State Capital (Port Harcourt)

 By Donu Kogbara

This thought-provoking and slightly edited article, which first appeared in a publication called NewAfrican, was written by my friend and former BBC boss Onyekachi Wambu, a distinguished London-based author and filmmaker.

Why do we continue to cling to the colonial names bestowed on our towns and cities? We do this even when the officials after whom these names given later disgraced themselves. The issue around Port Harcourt is a classic test case.

What would you do if one of your most important cities was named after a paedophile? Change the name, surely, or continue wearing it as a sordid badge of honour?

Is Rivers State Wike’s Cattle Ranch?

 By Ugoji Egbujo

Wike is boastful. The temptation is to take his claims with a pinch of salt. But unlike other loud and garrulous politicians, friends and foes alike say it is perilous to ignore Wike’s rants, even when he sounds inebriated. Who would have believed he was bred by a pastor? He is brash and ferocious. And outstandingly cunning. 

*Wike 

On television a few days ago, Wike claimed that the G5—a flock of former governors he shepherds—made Tinubu president. This latest chest-beating was provoked by governors of the ruling party, who all but labelled him a political chameleon: hiding under a rainbow flag to trumpet support for Tinubu while sabotaging the larger APC in furtherance of his personal ambitions.

Peter Obi: Let's Begin To Give Dignity To Human Lives In Our Land

 The death of 37 persons in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State, is a deeply troubling tragedy that demands urgent answers. 

These were persons who had been arrested as suspects. Whatever offence they were suspected of committing, they were still human beings, and the responsibility of the State was to keep them alive, safe, and treated humanely while due process took its course.

Peter Obi: On The Anambra Debt Question

*Peter Obi and Charles Soludo 
I have remained silent over the past few days because I have been grieving the loss of my very dear elder brother and friend, Chief Okey Ezeibe. However, the time has come for me to address some of the matters that have occupied public discussion in recent days.

I respectfully urge everyone to concentrate on the existential challenges confronting Nigeria and the hardships endured by its citizens, rather than on the needless distractions that have become widespread in our politics.

Lagos Pollution Is Becoming A Public Health Crisis

 By Bertram Nwannekanma

For millions of Lagos residents, pollution is something they encounter every day without necessarily seeing it.

It is in the exhaust fumes that hang over a busy road during rush hour. It is in the smoke from a generator powering a shop, office or home. It rises from refuse being burnt in a neighbourhood. It comes from construction sites, industrial facilities and poorly maintained vehicles. And unlike a dirty canal or overflowing dumpsite, there is often nowhere to point to and say: this is the pollution.
Yet Lagos residents breathe it all the same.

Rising Fuel Prices And Insensitivity To The Peoples’ Plight

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Again, I am still on the matter of rising prices of fuel energy, particularly petrol, which is heading towards N1,500, automotive gas oil, AGO or diesel, which is heading towards N2,000, and cooking gas, which is selling at above N22,000 for a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder. That sold for N3,500 BC, Before Change in 2015.

It is trite to begin to repeat how the rising prices of these fuels have inflicted a cost of living crisis on all of us. There are very few Nigerians left who are able to save for the rainy day; almost all of us spend everything we earn on food, transportation, and accommodation.

Why Is There No National Outrage?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

What will ever provoke a national outrage? Why is it that nothing shocks Nigerians anymore even when those in power throw the kitchen sink at them? At what point will Nigerians say enough to insults from their so-called leaders?

*Tinubu and Wike

Why is it that our patience has become so elastic that no matter how outrageous the conduct of political actors Nigerians take everything in their stride and move on? Is this hypnotism? Why is it that top government officials are increasingly becoming reckless in their actions and words?

Steve Obidi: Poetry Lines In Search Of The Truth (Book Review)

 Book: Eternal Truth (Poems: Timeless Wisdom for Purposeful Living)

Author: Steve Obidi

Pagination: 122

Publishers: Kraft Books Limited, Ibadan, Nigeria

Reviewer: Banji Ojewale

Russian-American poet and essayist, Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, going on to become, in 1991, the United States Poet Laureate, which classed him ‘’among the most influential Christian poets of the 20^th Century.’’

Tragedy In Custody: The Deaths Of Young Miners In Niger State

By Owolola Adebola

In the early hours of 17 September 2026, a grim discovery was made in Minna, capital of Nigeria’s mineral-rich Niger State. Thirty-seven young men and boys, arrested days earlier on suspicion of illegal mining, were found dead in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). Many of the deceased were teenagers, some as young as 14 or 15.

The circumstances remain contested and opaque, sparking public outrage, protests and urgent calls for an independent investigation. The suspects had been rounded up on 15 and 16 September during enforcement operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Minna. Artisanal mining for gold and other minerals is widespread in the state, drawing thousands of young people seeking livelihoods amid economic hardship.

Besieged Borgu And Their Jagaban

 By Ugoji Egbujo

In 2006, when the Borgu Emirate chose Tinubu, it could not have known it was choosing a future commander-in-chief as its chief warrior. Twenty years later, the jackpot looks like rotten luck: no better than a dud cheque. Achebe said a man cannot live by the riverbank and wash with spittle. If only Borgu could suffer lack and not terror.

*Tinubu

Nigerians love titles. Illiterate pastors become Doctors. Politicians are the most afflicted. When they are not lions and tigers — even the most cowardly among them — they are sun and moon, providers for the poor they are accused of looting blind. If only people lived true to the titles they brandish. Borgu must have seen something in Tinubu. Now it must endure the  rude awakening.

Policing For Personal Profit

 By Suleiman A. Suleiman

The tragic death of 37 artisanal miners under the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, more popularly known as Civil Defence, in Minna last week reveals, yet again, the kind of structural violence against ordinary Nigerians perpetrated by the state itself. The circumstances of the mass arrest and detention in unsafe and inhumane conditions in which the young artisanal miners died were horrific, to say the least, and entirely avoidable.

Yet these things happen in countless similar circumstances across Nigeria, if only in discrete numbers, and further illustrate the transactional dimension that underlies the policing functions carried out by various bodies like the Nigeria Police, the Road Safety Corps, the Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, etc. 

ELECTIONS: Nigeria Is Still Pursuing Shadows

 By Tonnie Iredia

In less than 4 months from now, Nigeria will hold its 2027 general elections; yet, not many would believe the assurances by the electoral body that the process will be free and fair. 

No one can blame the doubting Thomases because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is notorious for not keeping its word. Just before the last general elections in 2023, INEC told the nation that it would premise its operations on modern technology: indicating specifically that there would be both manual and electronic collation of votes etc.