An Open Letter To President Buhari On Police “Checkpoints”

 By Chuks Iloegbunam

Dear Mr. President,

Travelling from Lagos to Anambra State on November 9, 2019, I counted 67 “checkpoints” mostly manned by armed men of the Police Mobile Force along the 371 kilometre stretch from Sagamu to Asaba. Travelling the same route again on Thursday November 28, 2019, I counted 64 “checkpoints”. I was on each occasion behind the wheel, meaning that my calculations may have missed or added a number of “checkpoints”. 

On November 30, 2019, however, Chief Tony Onyima, a respected journalist travelling as a passenger, counted 60 checkpoints on the same tortuous stretch, noting the precise location of each and every roadblock. This means that, on average, there is a “checkpoint” every 6.28 kilometres of the way. It suggests that the notorious stretch boasts more “checkpoints” than Hanoi and Saigon combined ever did all through the 20 years of the Vietnam War. 

COVID-19 And Nigeria's Pathetic Leadership Deficit

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

There is no better warning about the growing confusion that seems to be gradually beclouding the federal government’s response to the coronavirus challenge than the belief it betrayed last week that, perhaps, all it needs to calm the fears and apprehensions of Nigerians about its ability to halt the spread of the virus is to reel out a catalogue of activities President Buhari was said to have undertaken so far concerning the pestilence, whether the people felt their impact or not.

*President Buhari and his spokesman, Femi Adesina

Now, if your family is starving badly, do you solve the rumbling signs of biting hunger in their stomach with some wild tales of the efforts deployed by you so far to feed them, or just keep quiet, give them food, and they will see and feel for themselves that you have played your role responsively and effectively?  Or if you must talk, tell them something you have done whose benefits they can readily verify and identify with.

Indeed, some Nigerians are beginning to achieve the conviction that there must be something about being in government in this country that seems to diminish the reasoning ability of people once they get in there and deprives them of the capacity to realize when they have stopped making sense or even become downright annoying. This is very pathetic.

Kogi 2019: Will Yahaya Bello Carry The Day?

By Tony Ademiluyi

Before Nigerian independence, the youths played a vital role in wrestling political power from our erstwhile colonial masters. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe established the Zik Group of Newspapers with the West African Pilot as it’s foremost in the group in 1937 at the age of thirty-three after a three year stint in editing the African Morning Post in Accra, Ghana. It revolutionized the newspapering industry and was the most nationalistic while still maintaining a modest modicum of financial success in its three decades of existence.

*Gov Bello and aides took to the streets to celebrate
 Buhari's return from UK medical  trip

Chief Anthony Enahoro edited the Southern Nigerian Defender one of the newspapers in the Zik Group in 1944 at the age of twenty-one straight from the famous Kings College Lagos without any university education. He went on to move the motion for Nigeria’s independence in 1953 at the age of thirty. Chief Bola Ige became the organizing secretary of the defunct Action Group at the age of twenty-three. Ambassador Matthew Tawo Mbu became the minister for Labour at the age of twenty-three in 1954 before he went to the United Kingdom to study law. Mazi Mbonu Ojike spearheaded the cultural nationalism with his famous ‘boycott the boycottables’ in his early thirties after his educational sojourn in the United States and became the Deputy Mayor of Lagos long before he turned forty. The list is endless of youths who achieved a lot in pre-independence Nigeria.

Gov Ambode: Adebule’s Unkindest Cut

By Comfort Obi
I have never met the Deputy Governor of Lagos state, Dr. Idiat Adebule, either officially or unofficially. Like her colleague–Deputy Governors across the country, she is redundant and anonymous, even though her state gives her a little advantage over others.  When you are the Governor, First Lady, or Deputy Governor of Lagos state, it is a plus. Every Governor of Lagos state can always lay a claim to being the number one governor in the country – deserved or not. So is the Lagos First Lady. And, well, so is the Deputy Governor. The reason is simple.

*Gov Ambode and Deputy Gov Adebule 

Lagos is the capital of the Nigeria Media. It is also the business capital of Nigeria. So, these guys in Lagos attract more attention than their counterparts elsewhere. At times, they are arrogant about it. What other governors would fall over themselves for, a Lagos State governor would ignore it. 

2019 Elections And Battle For The Soul Of Nigeria

By Simbo Olorunfemi

 The characteristic vice of the utopian is naivety; of the realist, sterility – E.H. Carr

 The reality of the 2019 elections battle is finally dawning upon us.

The contestation for power is becoming heightened. Alignments and re-alignments are taking place. Some of the early birds who took the assurance of a ticket on some platforms for granted are beginning to realise their mistakes.

The party that was in power yesterday has now become a receiver of presidential aspirants of all shapes and sizes, who have come to the realisation of the folly in nursing such ambition within the fold of the governing party, with the incumbent favoured to pick the ticket.