How Subsidy Removal Fuels Hunger In The Land

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Last week the video of a man seen crying in front of a market stall where he had gone to buy foodstuffs trended heavily on the internet, as it was widely shared across many platforms — chat groups on WhatsApp, on Facebook, and others. The man was seen in front of a shop where common foodstuffs like rice, beans, gari and others were on display for sale. After asking for the prices of the food items, he realised that he couldn’t afford to buy them with the money he had. He broke down, crying.

It is trite news that prices of everything, including and especially food items, have grown wings, taken off from the ground where they were before May 29, 2023, hit the roof, burst through into the skies, and are now headed for outer space. What is more worrisome is the rate at which prices increase. Sometimes it’s at three-day intervals, at other times, weekly, and most fearful of all, daily.

Nigeria’s Perennial Flooding: Estate Surveyor/Valuer Perspective

 By Toyin Aluko

One of the most prevalent natural disasters in Nigeria is perennial flooding. In recent years, incidents of flooding have been devastating. Some states have been increasingly experiencing flooding, particularly during the rainy season with the attending challenges to food production, food security and livelihoods. The country no doubt experienced its worst flooding in 2022.

Farmers and investors have suffered huge losses as floods destroyed thousands of hectares of farmlands and food crops. The extent and nature of the disaster is such that the actual losses, displacements and fatalities figures cannot be truly established due to poor records and reporting.

Nigeria: Tackling The Menace Of ‘The Great Flood’

 By Harrison Eromosele

The annual ritual flooding which every  so often besieged and submerged communities, suburbs, towns, and certain metropolises across several states and countrywide has degenerated from being a recurring decimal problem to a recurring death crisis. The havoc wreaked by this year’s deadly flooding is overwhelmingly unprecedented.

Indeed, it has earned for itself, a catastrophic history. This is the great flood of 2022. There are frightening grapevine hypotheses, suggesting that the devastating scale of this year’s (2022) flood condition in relation to 2012 would possibly imply a repeat, once every decade.

The Hijab Controversy In Osun

By Wale Sokunbi

Osun State is once again in the vortex of a storm over a ruling by a state High Court which granted students in the state the right to wear the Muslim female covering, the hijab, to school as part of their fundamental human rights. Since that controversial ruling by Justice Jide Falola on June 3, Nigerians have been inundated with pictures of students of other faiths, especially Christians, going to school in religious vestments such as cassocks, choir robes and the like.

The implication of this ugly situation is not lost on Nigerians. It is a recipe for anarchy, as students of all faiths may decide to start coming to school in their different religious apparels, and it would not be out of place to see student adherents of our traditional religions coming to school with their red and white apparels, divination beads, palm fronds and calabashes filled with kolanuts, red oil and other items that they could insist their faiths mandate them to take to their places of instruction. On a lighter note, our courts would, indeed, be hard pressed trying to determine the veracity of such claims, which would be a monumental waste of their precious time.

On a more serious note, it is unfortunate that the matter of school uniform has become a big distraction in the state. It is worrisome that at a time when all attention should be focused on the problems bedeviling the nation’s education sector, especially the sorry state of public schools and the declining performance of students in public examinations such as the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), some Nigerians appear more worried about the scarf, hijab or beret that students in government schools are wearing to school.

Although the use of accessories associated with a particular religion could amount to a subtle promotion or propagation of that particular religion in the public school system, and the state judiciary should not be seen to be promoting the use of the paraphernalia of any religion in schools, the leaders of other faiths in Osun State need a more measured response to Justice Falola’s controversial “hijab judgement.”

Our Fulani And Herdsmen Of Mayhem

By Ifeanyi Izeze

How can we live peaceably together as a people by continuously telling ourselves lies? Abi, it has now become our lifestyle in this country to always rationalize obvious aberrations. For how long can we as a people afford to continue like this?

The increasing sophistication and clinical coordination of the group of mindless attackers we call "Fulani herdsmen" or "cattle rearers" that have meted chained terror to our people in different parts of the country is mind-boggling and embarrassing. To think that what is happening in the North-Central and now in virtually every other part of the country is a mere conflict for grazing rights would only amount to naivety at best, because it is now without a doubt that an evil wind is blowing and no section of the country is spared.

The question to ask is: why is it that these so-called “Fulani herdsmen” always take our security operatives off-guard? They always finish their dastardly acts before the arrival of our counter-terrorism security forces. Haba! And instead of sitting together to marshal out a coordinated approach to address this challenge, managers of our security apparatuses give us the impression that some of them may be privy to these conspiracies against our people.

How do you explain the recent incident in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, where Fulani herdsmen, backed by mercenary fighters (as already confirmed), invaded several communities, killing more than 500 natives because they were cautioned to stop taking their cows into people’s farms?

Surprisingly, since the revelation that what we have been calling our cattle rearers were actually well-trained mercenaries in the act of causing mayhem, the government has not instituted any serious mechanism to unravel the real identity of these contract fighters.