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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
By Mudi Mudi
I have taken some time to research on the loan descriptions as released by the Anambra State Government which they claim Peter Obi as Governor signed off and my findings are as follows:
1.
The Nigeria Malaria Control Booster Project (MCBP) 2007:
This was financed through a US$180 million IDA credit from the
World Bank to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not a loan independently taken
by the Anambra State Government. The World Bank records say the original IDA
credit was approved in December 2006 and became effective on May 15, 2007.
Anambra was one of the seven participating states, along with
Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Rivers.
VERDICT: FG was the borrower not Anambra State Government.
I have received many calls and text messages from patriotic Nigerians who were annoyed that an Arise News anchor wanted me to answer questions about the 1966 coups, which were national tragedies.
As I travel across Nigeria and listen to Nigerians of all ethnic and religious identities, I have had opportunities to reflect on the many tragedies we have experienced in Nigeria, including the 1966 coups, the civil war, and the various mass violence that have plagued different parts of the country.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Former Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi buried his mother, Ezinne Mary Oruah, on May 5, 2026 in Ubima, his ancestral Ikwerre hometown. It was a celebration of life. At 89 years, she lived long and well.
I have received many calls and text messages from patriotic Nigerians who were annoyed that an Arise News anchor wanted me to answer questions about the 1966 coups, which were national tragedies.
I reassured those patriots that, as a presidential candidate, I am ready and able to answer any questions about anything relating to Nigeria. I have a commitment to serve the people, not to hide from them.
As I travel across Nigeria and listen to Nigerians of all ethnic and religious identities, I have had opportunities to reflect on the many tragedies we have experienced in Nigeria, including the 1966 coups, the civil war, and the various mass violence that have plagued different parts of the country.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Former Rivers State governor Chibuike Amaechi buried his mother, Ezinne Mary Oruah, on May 5, 2026 in Ubima, his ancestral Ikwerre hometown. It was a celebration of life. At 89 years, she lived long and well.
Yesterday, I joined other presidential candidates to sign the first National Peace Accord for the 2027 Presidential Elections.
*Obi
My signing of the accord is a reinforcement of my continued commitment to insisting that we, as candidates, must conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the office we aspire to. Leaders must eschew all forms of violent rhetoric and rein in their followers to do the same.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Again, the matter of fuel subsidy has dominated national discourse in the last few days, with President Bola Tinubu, former vice-president and ADC presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, NDC presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi and a host of others have had not a little to say about the issue.
The matter was reignited when Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said that if he should be elected, he would return subsidy on fuel energy. Expectedly, presidency officials descended on him, and in the exchanges that followed, harsh, near-uncivil words were used. The exchanges went as far as dredging up the matter of over $16 billion spent on the power sector during the Obasanjo administration. It just shows how deeply the issue of subsidy is affecting lives.
In recent days, deadly attacks have struck Benue, Plateau and Niger States, three contiguous states in Nigeria’s North-Central region.
In Mangu, Plateau State, at least 23 people were officially reported killed in the Jwak Maitumbi attack, while residents put the toll above 30. More than 45 houses were reportedly destroyed.
I had the privilege of joining some presidential candidates and their representatives as a guest and panellist at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
*Peter Obi speaking at the NBA conference in Port Harcourt
Our discussion focused on how to rebuild Nigeria and make it
work for its resilient, hardworking, and long-suffering people.
I reiterated my long-held view that the poverty and hunger Nigerians face today are largely the result of years of mismanagement and corruption by leaders entrusted with our commonwealth.
A nation that tolerates unverified academic credentials at any level of leadership, regardless of who is involved, risks destroying the very standards upon which a society is built. The issue is not about an individual. It is about standards, accountability, and the values we choose to pass on to the next generation.
We cannot continue to excuse blurred, missing, questionable, or unverified credentials simply because they belong to someone we support. The process through which people attain positions of responsibility matters greatly. How we get into leadership is as important as what we do with leadership.
The killings in Ungushi, Sokoto, where 32 Nigerians reportedly lost their lives, and the recent attacks in Ukum, Benue, where more lives have been lost and several others injured, are deeply painful.
These are not just numbers. They are parents, children, farmers,
and breadwinners whose lives have been cut short, leaving families devastated
and communities in fear.
We cannot continue with a cycle of killings, condolences, promises, and inaction. The government at all levels must prioritise addressing insecurity.
MY ADDRESS TO MARK THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 2027 PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CAMPAIGNS
21 August 2026
Dear Compatriots,
Members of the Press,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
Wednesday, 19 August 2026, marked the official start of the campaign period for the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
There is no doubt that this is a defining moment for our democracy. This moment gives Nigerians the opportunity to assess the records, ideas, and plans of those seeking their mandate to lead their country at a time of grave uncertainty in our rapidly changing world.
I consider myself quite privileged to be one of those seeking your mandate to deal with these challenges facing our country.
I enter this contest with one firm conviction: Nigeria can work,
and Nigeria must work.
Nigeria faces several serious challenges. Some of them are indeed of existential proportions.
The tragic news of yet another round of killings in Benue and Plateau States is both painful and deeply disturbing. The reported murder of at least sixteen innocent Nigerians in the Otukpo-Nobi community of Benue State, alongside the horrific killing of nine members of the same family, a two-month-old baby, in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, once again reminds us that the relentless cycle of bloodshed in parts of our country has persisted for far too long.
For years, families in Benue, Plateau and other communities across Nigeria have lived under the constant shadow of fear, violence and displacement. Mothers have buried their children, children have become orphans overnight, farmers have abandoned their lands, and entire communities have been left devastated. We cannot continue to accept this tragic cycle as though it were normal. It is not.
By Chuks Iloegbunam
Lend me your ears. Please! Anyone who believes, even for a millisecond, that what the rapers of our commonwealth plan for January 2027 are general elections has already lost tragically. Such a loser will be served this mocking injunction of “Go to court!” But on the Benches all across the nation’s courthouses, the betrayed petitioner against a stolen mandate will find, not brave and honest adjudicators, but the carcasses of sneering tramplers of the law who, with election riggers, are like six and half-a-dozen.
The aggregated submissions of the very best Senior Advocates of Nigeria can never and will never move them to give justice a chance. The odds are stacked against seekers of truth in contention with all Four Estates of the Realm mired in sin and corruption. It bears repeating that what the skin-headed, potbellied, knock-kneed and collapsible despoilers of the communal pond have in store for long-suffering Nigerians in January is nothing other than electoral abracadabra. The more you look, the less you see.
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 Olu Fasan
Last week, on June 26, Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, caused a huge judicio-political stir when he set aside his December 10, 2025, judgement ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, as a political party.
The ruling effectively deregisters the party. Having thoroughly read the Certified True Copy, CTC, of the judgement, I believe the judge’s action amounted to judicial recklessness and vandalism, which risks truncating Nigeria’s fragile democracy.
If that sounds hyperbolic, then consider the wider implication of Justice Dashen’s ruling. The judge ordered that NDC’s substantive suit, which gave rise to the December 2025 ruling in its favour, “shall revert to the stage it occupied immediately before the delivery of the judgement set aside herein.” In other words, based on the extant ruling, there’s currently no court order on INEC to recognise NDC as a political party, and INEC can revert to its original position before December 10, 2025, when it refused to do so.
By Emeka Alex Duru
Make no mistakes about it; democracy
is not a sure bet for emergence of good leaders. It is also not a guarantee for
good governance. But it allows the electorate a voice on how they are governed
and grants them the freedom of choice and participation in the affairs of the
state, at least, ideally.
It is this people-content that separates democracy from other forms of government. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was therefore right in defining democracy as the government of the people, for the people, by the people. Take away the people-factor, it is no longer democracy, no matter how benevolent it may seem. A system that is shorn of democracy, is an aberration. But then, democracy, if not properly managed and protected by the relevant checks, can be abused by even elected leaders. This is part of the reasons why every Nigerian must ensure that the current democracy in the land, is not truncated.
