How Long Will Yahaya Bello Continue With This Lawless Act?

 By Richards Ibe

The ex-Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who handed over to the current governor of the state, Usman Ododo in January this year after his two terms of four-years-tenure, has consistently been in the news in the past eight months.

*Bello and others dancing on the road...

It has been from one drama to the other bordering on his stewardship and how he handled the affairs of the state under his tenure.

Bello, who was alleged to have defrauded the state to the tune of N84 billion during his tenure, have done everything in and out of the books to avoid his trial spearheaded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Rivers State: Caveat Emptor For Wike

 By Ochereome Nanna

Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, must be feeling on top of the world right now. He has successfully retrieved the structure of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State from Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

*Fubara and Wike 
With the endorsement of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party and the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, witnessed and certified the recent congress of the Rivers State chapter of the party, all eyes are on the Governor to respond in the battle for his own political survival.

#Obidatti23 Rally: Who Is Afraid Of Lekki Toll Gate?

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Wednesday, September 28, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officially blew the whistle for the commencement of the 2023 election campaigns. With the Presidential and National Assembly elections holding on February 25, 2023, that will be a grueling 150 days of politicians crisscrossing this vast country, soliciting for votes.

It promises to be five months of drama when the hoi-polloi will have their day in the sun. The elections will be consequential. Nigerians, this time around, seem to be conscious of what is at stake – the soul of their country, that beautiful damsel that has been serially and unconscionably raped by pretentious, maniacal suitors.

Economic Implications Of An Unsafe Abuja

 By Cheta Nwanze

A country’s capital is the city where its national government is located. This location is usually carefully chosen and designed to offer the best impression and position for a nation’s government and people to connect optimally with citizens and visitors. Sometimes nations change their choice of capitals to get new ones that adequately serve these purposes and this was the idea behind the Nigerian Government moving the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991.

Thirty-one years later though, what we have is a situation where Abuja is dealing with a significant terrorist threat that began as a spate of armed robbery attacks on the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory and recently manifested as prison breaks that had arrested terrorists and criminals being freed.

The situation should be shocking but it really isn’t. It has sadly been rather predictable and began with the regime of retired Major General Muhammadu Buhari responding to attacks on Northern minorities with a disdainful lack of concern that had many onlookers believing it was complicit in some way.

So Many Nigerians Are Being Killed!

 By DAN AMOR 

Irrational impulses are not surprising in the stress and tension that characterize a demented society. In an atmosphere of violence, reason is sometimes abandoned and humanitarian principles forgotten. The inflamed passions of the time lead men to commit atrocities. But the concern here is not with the psychological pathology of those who commit atrocities but rather with what has turned our nation into a slaughterhouse where human beings are daily killed with intimidating alacrity. Throughout modern history, atrocity propaganda has often mesmerized readers thousands of kilometres away from the scene of the crime. Often, the improbability of the actions described suggests that the stories were little more than fantasies concocted for diverse reasons from even more diverse sources. 

But the reading public in Nigeria has invariably evinced a morbid absorption with the most nightmarish aspects of this national tragedy. It is indeed fashionable to observe that material which should create a moral aversion to the cruelty of our present times often produces a perverse fascination instead. There is, candidly speaking, an alarming rate of mockery killings in Nigeria, especially under this Buhari administration.

The “Oshiomhole Must Go” Coalition

By Reuben Abati

Chief John Odigie Oyegun, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) must be having a good laugh wherever he is. If he is just finishing a meal, he can afford to pick his teeth and belch from the deepest part of his biological system, and even turn up his nose as he asks for a glass of water. He can also look around and thank Karma for being kind to him, as he gulps down the water and reflects on the circumstances of the APC since he was shunted aside and Adams Oshiomhole, former Governor of Edo State and former labour leader, supplanted him.

Oyegun’s waterloo was the election in Ondo State and the emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu as Governor, and before then, his power-tussle with some key stakeholders in the South West wing of the ruling party. Oyegun was accused of being disdainful of reconciliation within the party, and not willing to work with some prominent stakeholders. He was seen as an obstacle to party cohesion. He was sacrificed. His place was taken by Adams Oshiomhole.

Fayose Wants Army To Shift Attention To Fulani Herdsmen Menace

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has called on the military to direct its Operations Python Dance and Crocodile Smile to those areas in Nigeria, especially the North Central States of Benue, Plateau as well as North East States like Taraba and Adamawa where Fulani herdsmen are killings Nigerians and destroying farmlands worth several billions of naira.

The governor who described the reported threat by Miyeitti Allah Kautal Hore, a splinter group of Miyeitti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, over the Benue State Anti-Open Grazing Law as reckless and open threat against the sovereignty of Nigeria added that the silence of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government over the Fulani herdsmen menace was a sign of complicity on the part of the federal government.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Monday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said: “If the Federal Government does not want to be seen as protecting the Fulani herdsmen, attention of the Army’s python that is dancing in the Southeast and crocodile that is smiling in the Southwest and South South should be focused on the killer herdsmen.”