N8.83 trillion is as follows:
1.About 2% of our GDP.
2.Over 35% of Nigeria’s 2025
N23.96 trillion capital project budget. In fact, the amount is more than the
actual released capital funding for 2025.
3.It is more than the entire combined budget for education (N3.52 trillion) and health (N2.38 trillion).
By Adekunle Adekoya
Since last weekend, the internet was literally rent asunder over remarks made by the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. In a video which went viral, the First Lady, in company of other ladies of the realm, was seen advising people, especially womenfolk, to engage in cottage enterprises like frying akara for sale, roasting corn for sale, as well as making cakes from groundnut paste. Cakes made from groundnut paste is what we call kulikuli here.
A seemingly honest-to-God advice, you would say, abi? But many Nigerians thought otherwise. Internet content makers invaded Facebook and Tik-Tok, with skits on akara frying, corn roasting, and kulikuli selling. I saw one, against the backdrop of a London street, where corn was being roasted and kulikuli was on sale, with exhortation to viewers not to take the First lady’s advice lightly, as they would smile to the banks if they take up the enterprise.
Of course, while some of the skits were made with real life characters, a majority of them that trended heavily were obviously made with AI, or Artificial Intelligence. Even the president was not spared, as there were skits showing him hawking akara in full agbada on the streets. There was another one, that showed the First Lady and the President sitting at a roadside, roasting corn, and asking passers-by to buy. Very funny, no?
But I think it is apt to construct and deconstruct the First Lady’s advice in terms of the realities faced by ordinary Nigerians as they struggle daily to make ends meet.
First, not a few people that I know have prospered by frying akara for sale. Indeed, frying akara is a common thing in Yorubaland. It features as part of foods at the funeral of departed fathers and mothers. It is also made and eaten at the anniversaries of the deaths of departed parents. Commercially, the most successful, iconic akara seller is the woman at Osu, near Ilesa, in Osun State. In 1984, on my way to Ijero-Ekiti where I was posted for NYSC, I remember seeing young girls dressed in turquoise blue frocks selling akara to motorists and their passengers. I have eaten the Osu akara on many occasions.
Even today, other akara sellers, modelling after the Osu one can be seen along the road at Ikire, on the Ibadan-Ife-Ilesa expressway. In many towns and cities of western Nigeria, there exist thousands of Iya Alakara, whose lifelong occupation has been frying akara for sale. Nothing novel in it. Nothing bad in selling akara. Or corn.
Even kulikuli, a popular snack introduced into Yorubaland by Northerners, is a commodity whose preparation has become an industry. From getting the required quantity of groundnut, de-husking it, and making a paste out of it after extracting the oil, and packaging it for sale, it has become a huge enterprise, whose value nationwide can be estimated in billions of naira. It may shock people to discover that not a few Nigerians have succeeded in life selling akara, kulikuli or corn.
To be candid, almost all the fruits we eat today in Southern Nigeria are sold in wheelbarrows by migrants from the North. Everywhere, you see them selling oranges, water melons, mangoes, carrots, and the like. What hits me is that youths of Southern Nigeria think these undertakings beneath their dignity, and I think they are wrong, for many of these migrants from the North sustain themselves and remit money back home for the upkeep of their families a with proceeds from sales of fruits alone. Some of them have two, three wives, and as much as eight, nine children.
The downside of the First Lady’s exhortation as it concerns frying akara for sale probably came when she suggested that as little as N50,000 can be enough to start an akara-frying enterprise. I think that is what probably triggered the backlash and resultant skits.
It is simply impossible today, with the state of things in Nigeria, to start an akara-frying enterprise with N50,000. For a starter, the items needed will include a frying pan or small basin, a gas stove or charcoal burner, at least two litres of oil, at least one paint bucket of beans, and a visible place, usually a bus stop or some other suitable place along a road. Can N50,000 cover all these, with the cost of gas, charcoal, cost of vegetable oil? And we haven’t added incidentals like people who will collect “rent” for the space to be used! It is this disconnect that triggered the skits.
That is where the problem is. There is a huge chasm disconnecting those managing our affairs from our day-to-day experiences. That disconnection manifested earlier.
Last week, Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Mr Adebayo Onanuga said during an interview on Arise Television that he couldn’t see the hunger Nigerians are complaining of. Would people complain if things were right with them? Will a child cry if not hungry or beaten? If a presidential spokesman cannot see hunger in the land, how can the First Lady see that N50,000 cannot start an akara venture?
Now that the Presidential Villa in Abuja is said to be powered by renewable solar energy, can anybody who lives and works there still share the pains we endure daily from providers of public electricity? As I write, there has been an outage in my part of Lagos since Tuesday. No idea when supply will be restored. How can a governor or president see our pain? He cannot, because he is too far away from us, and never bothers to check on us to see how we are doing. In all, a little more empathy for us from those ruling us will make a difference in how they approach running government for the people. Abi?
*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues
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.
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.”
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.
By Kingsley Moghalu
Over the weekend I read a news story in The Punch newspaper about how several countries’ authorities have expressed unease about the prospect of receiving new ambassadors from Nigeria virtually 1 year to the end of tenure of our current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If true (and such concern would be logical based on standard diplomatic practice), this should not be a surprise.
To be announcing ambassadorial appointments nearly a year to the end of an elected government’s tenure, when the practice is that receiving countries must issue a formal “agreement”, a formal decision by the receiving country to accept credentials from the individual named as Ambassador – a process that takes several weeks to months at the earliest — does not indicate serious and responsible governance.
By Kingsley Moghalu
Over the weekend I read a news story in The Punch newspaper about how several countries’ authorities have expressed unease about the prospect of receiving new ambassadors from Nigeria virtually 1 year to the end of tenure of our current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If true (and such concern would be logical based on standard diplomatic practice), this should not be a surprise.
To be announcing ambassadorial appointments nearly a year to the end of an elected government’s tenure, when the practice is that receiving countries must issue a formal “agreement”, a formal decision by the receiving country to accept credentials from the individual named as Ambassador – a process that takes several weeks to months at the earliest — does not indicate serious and responsible governance.
By Owei Lakemfa
Early morning Sunday, December 7, 2025, while many Beninois slept, hoping to go to church, mosque and traditional places of worship at dawn, some members of their armed forces fanned out. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Paschal Tigri, they planned to bring the people under their claws.
At 05:00 they attacked the Presidential Palace and then retreated to the national broadcaster, the SRTB where they announced the removal of Patrice Talon, President of the French vassal state. The rebels accusations against Talon include imposition of harsh economic measures on the people such as increased taxes and cuts in healthcare. Others include clamping down on the opposition and deteriorating security situation.
By Sa'adiyyah Adebisi Hassan
When the Benin Republic political crisis began, Nigerians woke up to a Nigerian army deployment that appeared out of nowhere – jets, troops, machinery, rapid response, zero bureaucracy. Less than 24 hours.
Compare that with years of massacres, kidnappings, mass abductions, villages burnt, clergy murdered, schools emptied, highways captured, and entire states under terrorist rule and suddenly Nigeria is “confused”, “slow”, “gathering intelligence”, or “waiting for weather clearance.”
By Ugo Onuoha
The prospects for the future wellbeing of this country, Nigeria, are not looking good, the pretenses of our rulers to the contrary notwithstanding. And this is not about its distant future. It’s about the near future. Nigeria is rapidly deteriorating from not working to falling apart. The assertion of the country not working is a notorious fact, but the claim of its falling apart could be treated as crying wolf.
It may not be out of place if we reassure ourselves that we have been at the precipice on more than one occasion in the past. The country was barely seven years old from independence when it was plunged into a fratricidal civil war during which millions of lives were lost in the space of three years, 1967-1970.
By Tonnie Iredia
The threat by US President Donald Trump of attacking Nigeria if its government allows a continuation of what he called the persecution of Christians has remained the matter of the moment since it was made last week.
By Ugo Onuoha
Lateef Fagbemi is Nigeria’s Attorney-general and Minister for Justice. He has been at the job since August 2023. He is a Senior Advocate, the equivalent of a King’s [formerly Queen’s] Counsel in the United Kingdom. He might have been a brilliant lawyer but his lawyering skills became more pronounced with his dexterity over election matters.
My understanding is that he has had quite a few victories in high profile electoral disputes. And the crowning prize of his nose for winning election disputes was in 2023 when he led a team of other senior lawyers and a motley of nondescript attorneys to persuade the Supreme Court to rubber stamp the award of the presidency of Nigeria by the ‘Independent’ National Electoral Commission [INEC] to Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
By Tony Iwuoma
When the history of Nigeria’s political decadence is finally written, the season we are living through will deserve its own chapter, a cautionary tale titled “Before Nigeria Defected.”
The phrase sounds exaggerated, almost absurd. But pause for a moment and look around. Every week, from one state to another, politicians, governors, senators, ex-ministers, former foes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are suddenly rediscovering affection for the ruling party. They are crossing over in droves, clutching brooms they once mocked, delivering speeches that sound as hollow as campaign jingles played out of tune.
By Owei Lakemfa
Senate President Godswill Akpabio issued a very powerful statement to the world on October 11, 2025, titled “The Trials and Triumphs of a Resilient Nigeria’s 10th Senate.” He vowed that: “The Senate cannot and will not be held hostage by the disruptive instincts of any of its members.”
He declared: “Democracy thrives only when its institutions are respected and its rules upheld…The discipline of parliamentary conduct is a universal marker of political civilization”. The Senate President mentioned no names, gave no instances, referred to nothing. It was just a bland statement that said nothing. It gives the impression of an idle leader finding it difficult to get out of bed.
By Tonnie Iredia
The uproar generated by the allegation that Uche Nnaji, Nigeria’s immediate past Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology forged both his degree and NYSC certificates has simmered considerably following the Minister’s resignation. But why he resigned is not clear. Did he resign because he was weighed down by the enormity of the scandal? Could it be that he wanted to save the government from further bad press or was he forced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quit? This unclear end to the scandal is one of the many reasons why the resignation is not enough.
If Nnaji was not guilty as some of his supporters forcefully argued, it is unfair to sacrifice him over some purportedly concocted allegations. Considering that it was not just a fake degree certificate but also a bogus NYSC certificate, the allegation became one too many. On this score, the former Minister cannot blame those who concluded that he has a propensity to be blame worthy. A spokesperson for Nnaji had argued that there was a PDP faction within the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN who ganged up against his principal. If so, did the same political group permeate the NYSC to conjure the wrong official to sign Nnaji’s bogus discharge certificate?
By Atiku Abubakar
Tuesday’s resignation of Uche Nnaji, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, has once again brought to light the deep moral crisis at the heart of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. What should ordinarily be a matter of national shame is now being disguised as a “voluntary resignation”, an attempt to whitewash yet another scandal that typifies the forgery-ridden character of this government.
Let the truth be told: Uche Nnaji should not have been allowed the courtesy of resignation. He should have been summarily dismissed and prosecuted for deceit and falsification. By permitting him to quietly exit through the backdoor, the Tinubu administration has once again demonstrated that it is an assembly of forgers, impostors, and morally bankrupt individuals masquerading as public servants.
By Ugo Onuoha
Many issues have been playing out in Lagos state between the government and residents, especially with those of Igbo extraction. There appears to be no love lost. It has been a cat and mouse relationship since after the February 2023 presidential election in which Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi [an Igbo], defeated a ‘son of the soil’ Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress [APC] political party.
*Sanwo-Olu and Tinubu
The defeat of the Jagaban, who was a governor of the state between 1999 and 2007, was deemed an insult, an assault, and a sacrilege. It came as a shock of ‘tsunamic’ proportion because Tinubu, now president of Nigeria, was regarded as the builder and owner of Lagos, a claim that is blatantly untrue. He was regarded as a wily politician and a political strategist like no other. For once he was outed as a giant with clay feet.
By Suyi Ayodele
The photograph is graphic. The message is obvious. The semiotics are unmistaken. A bandit in military fatigue sits comfortably. On his lap is an AK-47 assault rifle. Around his neck are various communication gadgets. His look betrays his hubris. He is a man of power! His confidence shows who is in charge. It is audacity in its illiterate form!
Another man in a native attire bends towards the bandit. He smiles sheepishly. He holds a handset, in a very suggestive manner. The caption tells the entire story: “Nigerian Government Official ‘Exchange Contact’ with Bandits After a ‘Peace Deal’ Meeting in Subuwa LGA in Katsina State.”
By Nick Dazang
Leaders, like all mortals, experience fear. But most of them do not show it. In tempest and in turbulence, leaders must exude calm. They do so less their citizens find recourse in despair or paralysis. Which explains why at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt assured Americans, in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.
By Steve Osuji
Though the comment elicited pure, undiluted outrage one, dithered in commenting about it initially.
First, Igbo hating seems like a norm for Abike; a trait she cannot help. It seems to have lodged in her DNA like shrapnel. A number of times, in her unguarded moments, her true colours would peek from the horizon like the rising sun.
Second, some Yoruba elements have taken Igbo baiting, bashing
and hating to a new level in the last decade.
Consider the lineup: a paramount monarch of Lagos, the daughter of the sitting president, the current first lady in Aso Rock and the President's chief spokesman, among others, all have publicly and brazenly made hate remarks against the Igbo people of the southeast of Nigeria.
