Being the full text of the lecture delivered by Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ikemba Nnewi, on the occasion of TSM's 2nd Diamond Lecture to mark the fourth anniversary of the magazine on February 22, 1994
*Odumegwu-OjukwuMonday, July 28, 2025
Ojukwu: Nigeria: The Truths Which Are Self-Evident!
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Peter Obi And A Buffoon Called Monday Okpebholo
By Ugo Onuoha
Who is a buffoon? I will not put my thumb on the scale so that I will not inject my personal bias and anger in the definition of a buffoon. I will simply ask MetaAI. Please AI who is a buffoon? “A buffoon is a person who behaves in a silly, foolish, or absurd way, often causing amusement or annoyance. The term can imply someone who: acts foolishly or absurdly; makes a spectacle of themselves; lacks seriousness or judgment; [and/or] engages in clownish or ridiculous behaviour”.
*ObiAI elaborates by saying that “In modern usage, ‘buffoon’ can be used to describe someone who is seen as ridiculous, incompetent, or silly, often in a way that’s entertaining or annoying”. It went on to illustrate: “He’s such a buffoon on social media, always posting ridiculous videos”. Which one of these descriptions does not fit the governor of Edo state, Monday Okpebholo? He is silly. He acts foolishly. He is absurd in conduct and utterance. He causes amusement and annoyance at the same time. He makes a spectacle of himself. He never appears to be a serious person. Indications are that he is a dullard.
Monday, July 14, 2025
Why Nigeria’s Election Petition System Is Unconstitutional
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
“Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority.” Section 14(2), Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
In 2007, the contest to rule Nigeria was between two sons of Katsina State. From the Katsina Emirate, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ran on the ticket of the then ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to succeed outgoing president, Olusegun Obasanjo. His elder brother, Shehu, had served as Obasanjo’s second-in-command during military rule from February 1976 to October 1979. From the Daura Emirate, also in Katsina State, Muhammadu Buhari who also served alongside Obasanjo and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua in that military government, was the leading opposition candidate on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP).
Benue Killings: Probing The Killers’ Identity, Motive And Viable Remedy
By Tony Nnadi
“Nigeria must now suspend the doomed voyage to 2027 Elections and initiate an immediate Transitioning Process to first address the multiple Existential Threats Confronting Nigerians, and threatening the very existence of the Nigerian Distressed Federation”
As bloodletting, lamentations recriminations, accusations and counter-accusations continue around the killings in Benue State, there has been a remarkable conspiracy of silence amongst the political leaders in both Benue State and Abuja regarding the well-known Fulani Conquest Agenda that is at the heart of the Invasions and Killings, as well as the role of the Caliphate-Imposed Unitary Constitutional Arrangements of Nigeria which makes it impossible for the embattled Benue Indigenous Peoples to defend themselves with appropriate Arms against the onslaught of the invading, Heavily Armed Fulani Militia, masquerading as “Fulani Herdsmen”
Friday, June 13, 2025
June 12: If Abiola Won, Is He Now A Posthumous President?
By Olu Fasan
Exactly 32 years ago, the presidential election of June 12, 1993 was annulled by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida that conducted the poll. Over three decades after that seismic decision, the truth, the whole truth, about why the election was annulled and who actually annulled it remains unknown.
*AbiolaGeneral Babangida’s long-awaited memoir, A Journey in Service, failed woefully to settle the whodunnit question because he passed the buck and named a long-dead colleague, General Sani Abacha, who can’t defend himself, as the chief culprit, and resorted to doubtful conjectures about the motives of those he described as “the nefarious ‘inside’ forces opposed to the elections”, but mentioned none of them except Abacha. Thus, 32 years after the epoch-making decision, Babangida still could not bring himself to name any living culprit, as if none exists!
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Okonjo-Iweala, Kemi Badenoch: The Shaming Of Nigerian Statehood
By Olu Fasan
The strength of any country consists of its natural resources, human resources and capital assets, namely, the economic wealth that delivers higher living standards. The first two determine the third. If a country can successfully harness its natural resources, using its human talent, it will prosper; if it can’t, it will fail.
*Kemi Badenoch and Okonjo-IwealaNow, Nigeria is known worldwide for its abundant human and natural resources, so why is it one of the world’s poorest countries? Why is Nigeria run so badly that it’s utterly dysfunctional, verging on state failure? The commonest answer people give is “leadership”. But Nigerians run world bodies and lead major Western political parties, so why can’t Nigerians run their own country well? How can Nigerians provide leadership abroad, but not at home?
Friday, November 29, 2024
Obasanjo’s Moment Of Epiphany
By Promise Adiele
I met Olusegun Obasanjo for the first time in his Abeokuta home in 2017. I had gone to interview him with Prof. Hope Eghagha as part of the research materials we needed for a national project. After three hours of robust engagement on various topics about Nigeria, I no longer had any illusions about Obasanjo’s sagacity, intellect, and sometimes exaggerations which exonerated him of all culpabilities, creating an infallible image of a being.
*Obasanjo
To say that Obasanjo is intelligent is to put it mildly. He recounted historical events with an uncanny exactitude and subtle arrogance that belies his position as a no-nonsense former leader of the most populous black country in the world. One can profitably argue that few people know or understand Nigeria more than Olusegun Obasanjo.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Are These Professional Soldiers?
By Sunny Awhefeada
A shocking and horrifying post appeared on facebook two days ago. The post in question is a video in which a helpless civilian was being pummeled by soldiers in uniform under the watchful supervision of a major-general!
The victim is neither a terrorist nor a bandit! He is just another civilian accused by power drunk soldiers of denting the jeep of the major-general. As the brutes in uniform rained blows on the fellow, his traumatized wife wailed drawing attention to his ill-health and how his uniformed assailants were about to blind him. That heartrending cry of the wife did not deter the soldiers.
Friday, November 1, 2024
Who Will Call Nigerian Politicians To Order?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
I am worried that Nigerian leaders have captured the Nigerian state, taking beleaguered citizens hostage in the process and yet carrying on as if all is well.
*Nigerian politiciansI am even more worried that the grossly abused citizens, afflicted with the debilitating Stockholm syndrome, rather than standing up to their abusers are actually coping, having over time developed positive feelings toward those who have persistently treated them cruelly, violently and unfairly in the name of leadership. But I am most worried that with the way Nigerian politicians are carrying on, sooner or later something will give and we will all be worse for it.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Is Bola Tinubu Settling Scores?
By Ugo Egbujo
Tinubu has become an unabashed chauvinist. It’s a hard watch. It doesn’t bode well for national unity. Tinubu’s critical appointments have become the most lopsided in the history of this country.
*TinubuA Yoruba is the police Inspector General. A Yoruba is the EFCC Chairman. A Yoruba is the Head of the DSS. A Yoruba is the Attorney General. A Yoruba is the Chief Justice of the Federation. And Tinubu, a Yoruba, is the President and overseer of all instruments of coercion. The entire criminal justice system is in the hands of one ethnic group.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
That Message From The World Bank
By Sunny Ikhioya
Last week, the Senior Vice President of the World Bank group, Mr Indermit Gill, addressed the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and made profound statements. But what caught the attention of most Nigerians was his statement that: “This is only the beginning. Nigeria will need to stay the course for at least 10 to 15 years to transform its economy and become an engine of growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Nigerians are asking: why do we need a whole 15 years to get out of the woods? If the leadership does the right thing, can’t we achieve significant progress within a regime circle of four years?
Monday, September 30, 2024
EFCC And Yahaya Bello’s Hide-And-Seek Game
By Charles Okoh
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may have with recent events, proven to those who never believed in its abilities to properly prosecute financial fraud offenders without bias, that it has outlived its usefulness. An anti-graft agency that seems only out to diligently hunt and prosecute small fries while bungling high-profile cases involving men and women of means certainly cannot provide the much desired check on economic and financial crimes that hold this nation hostage.
*Tinubu and Bello
At the outset of the agency, incidentally under Nuhu Ribadu, who is the current National Security Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there were at least some attempts to prosecute high-profile cases. Even though it was argued that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and succeeding presidents after him, have been using the agency to persecute political enemies but it was still not hopeless as it currently is.
Monday, July 8, 2024
Investigate Buhari, Now!
By Obi Nwakanma
Nigeria is in dire straits. That is no longer news. It is not even news anymore that Nigerians are going through the worst economic crisis of their lives. The very lean Structural Adjustment Programme years – the SAP years – may not even compare. I have been told that the kind of desperation seen now in Nigeria is apocalyptic. It is strange and foreboding. An eerie and very fatalistic despondence gnaws at the very core of the Nigerian psyche.
*BuhariFor many of us growing up in Nigeria from the late 80s and the 1990s, Nigeria had turned into something of an economic dustbowl. Many middle class folks suddenly found themselves thrown down the scale. Many families were destroyed because of the stress on family life and income. I came home one holiday in 1986 from University of Jos, and asked for jam, and nearly got kicked off the dining table by my enraged father who thought my request both insensitive and unintelligent.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Trading Blames, Living In Denial While Nigerians Suffer!
By Dan Onwukwe
No matter the clouds of controversy that trailed how he won the Feb 25, 2023 presidential election, one year has passed since Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s President. But the manner in which he has governed the country in the last one year still generates intense public debate. The following questions remain top of public discourse: Is Nigeria better now than Tinubu met it?
*TinubuAre the lives and livelihood of the citizens better or worse now than before Tinubu came to power? And how will history judge him and the policies he has implemented in the last one year ? Of course, opinions differ, but the general consensus is that history will not be kind to most of the policies that he initiated unless he changes course. On that score, it’s not unkind to say that his administration still carries more baggage than an ocean liner.
Friday, April 26, 2024
The Trial Of Emefiele: A Lesson For All Presidential Yes-Men
By Olu Fasan
The images of Godwin Emefiele, flummoxed as he is chaperoned by state security agents from custody to custody, from courtroom to courtroom, contrast sharply with those of the man who, as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, bestrode, until just a year ago, the Nigerian financial and banking world like a colossus; the man who daringly wanted to run for president while still CBN governor.
*Emefiele and BuhariIt is a classic case of how life or fortunes can turn in a dime. But one must also wonder what former President Muhammadu Buhari, ensconced in his cosy home in Daura, Katsina State, is thinking as he watches the man whose behaviour he aided and abetted being treated like a common criminal. Why has Buhari abandoned Emefiele? Indeed, why is Buhari free and Emefiele not?
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Yahaya Bello: The Bully As A Coward
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
It is a settled axiom: All bullies are cowards. Hurting and scaring those who are weaker is not bravery and despite their braggadocio, bullies only prey on the weak using aggression and intimidation to cover up their own feelings of inadequacy and fear.
*BelloFormer Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has proven that axiom, once again, to be eternally true. Who would have ever thought that the self-acclaimed ‘White Lion’ will ever be afraid of anything or anybody? In the eight years that he superintended over the affairs of Kogi State, he carried on like an Emperor.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Not So, Mr. President, Nigeria Must First Love Her Citizens!
By Banji Ojewale
The security and welfare of the people (of Nigeria) shall be the primary purpose of government— The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
*TinubuIn 1976, the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo sought to stir the patriotic instincts of our young citizens by decreeing the National Pledge into our lives. It must be recited in all Nigerian schools, the junta said. The general’s martial mind given to governing by fiat and force led him through only one route to patriotism: a mental enslavement of the boys and girls through feeding on the pledge would lead, willy-nilly, to their loyalty to the state and its agents and agencies. If they voiced it out many times over the years, their impressionable minds would give way to deeds of loyalty and love for the land, even if they were under an oppressive, objectionable and off-putting government.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Tinubu’s Unhappy 8 Months In Office
By Dan Onwukwe
Can the news get any uglier for President Bola Tinubu than it is already? It’s not yet half-time, but as Tinubu, wherever he is in Paris, France right now, he may be pondering anxiously where his government has taken Nigerians in just eight months of his presidency, an office he so desperately wanted, and got in most unquestionable fashion. He must also be thinking how much harder it is being the President of Nigeria.
*TinubuTruth is, there’s big trouble everywhere. Even in Abuja, his official residence, insecurity has squeezed everyone to a corner. Kidnappers are daily on the prowl, taking their victims at ease, and demanding hefty ransom. First Lady, Remi Tinubu had recently suggested intense, fervent prayers as the answer to the problem of terrorism in the land.
Friday, January 12, 2024
How 2023 Will Affect Nigeria’s Political Stability For Decades
By Olu Fasan
Nigerians, it seems, have moved on from the political events of 2023. Some are already talking about, others planning for, 2027. But the thoughtful and perceptive will not easily forget 2023. For the events of that year will have far-reaching consequences that could unsettle Nigeria for decades. As someone who is heavily invested in Nigeria’s political development, my concern here is how the events of 2023 could deepen Nigeria’s instability, while hoping an alternative aftermath would avert that dreadful political trajectory.
For a start, following the Supreme Court verdict, Bola Tinubu is now the de facto and de jure president of Nigeria, leaving aside the philosophical question about the nature of his mandate. However, his presidency sets Nigeria on an unstable political future on two key fronts, both regarding the management of Nigeria’s diversity. This may not matter now, it will at some point. But before we come to that, there’s the more imminent problem of the 2027 presidential election. In one sense, 2027 will be like 2015; in another, it won’t. In both senses, 2027 will be acutely challenging. Here’s why.
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Addressing Failed Government Policies That Fuel Food Inflation
By Adefolarin A. Olamilekan
Food, food and food remain the most constant nutritional and vitamin value humans cannot do without. Our existence depends on it or else humanity will go into extinction. We cannot dare joke about the lack of food. Nobody has made food its enemy.
These are the reasons why serious nations make deliberate efforts toward not just having food security, but making it strategically abundant, available, and affordable for the people. In other words, there is greater attention to government policy direction that defines food, essentially, as the number one priority on the scale of preference. In this regard, the policy to make food available all year round and affordable is not toiled with no matter how the economic technical conundrum calls it inflation or food inflation.