The aircraft scheduled for this service made two landing attempts in Ibadan but had to return to Abuja due to adverse weather conditions at the time.
By Stephanie Shaakaa
Is INEC actually independent? In Nigeria today, this is not a question of law, it is a question of life or death for democracy. Because when citizens begin to doubt the hands that blow the nation’s democratic whistle, every vote, every promise, every election is already suspect before it begins. Trust is the true ballot. Without it, even the cleanest election is hollow.
In every democracy, the whistle is more than an instrument of order. It is the sound of fairness itself. The moment citizens begin to suspect that it no longer blows by the rulebook, the game changes long before the final score is announced. Every controversial call, every silence, is filtered through suspicion rather than principle. Trust does not collapse in one instant. It leaks away, decision by decision.
By Ochereome Nnanna
For me, the legacy of the late President Muhammadu Buhari remains the most profound failure of Nigerian leadership. It was a tenure defined by a litany of institutional abuses. Chief among these was Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC).
By Olu Fasan
Recently, after the mass killing in Jos, Plateau State, President Bola Tinubu said he was not elected “to comfort and create widows and widowers”. Yet since he became president barely three years ago, his administration has overseen the creation of thousands of widows, widowers and orphans whose husbands, wives and parents were killed in terrorist attacks.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Electoral umpires in Nigeria have a long history of dalliance with academics so much so that it has almost become a rule for a professor, the discipline notwithstanding, to be appointed chairman. Granted, some non-academics sometimes find themselves in the saddle, but that is more of an exception.
So, the 1959 federal election, which preceded independence, and was strictly the business of the departing colonial overlord – Britain – was conducted by the Electoral Commission of Nigeria, ECN, which was inaugurated in 1958 and headed by a British, Ronald Edward Wraith.
After independence in October 1960, the Tafawa Balewa-led government set up the Federal Electoral Commission, FEDECO, which replaced the ECN and in 1964 appointed Mr Eya Esua as the chairman. Though not a professor, Esua, nevertheless, was a reputed teacher.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
It was Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French critic, journalist, and novelist, who, in 1849, coined what has become an enduring proverb: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more they stay the same. In matters of governance and power in Nigeria – military or civilian – nothing can be truer.
As editor of the Sunday Diet newspaper, I was in Maiduguri in April 1998, yes the selfsame Borno State capital that has become a killing field, to cover the national convention of the Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM. Borno was the home state of Alhaji Gambo Lawan, the national chairman of the GDM, one of the five political associations that included the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP; Congress for National Consensus, CNC; Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN; and the National Centre Party of Nigeria, NCPN, formally approved by the electoral umpire – National Election Commission of Nigeria, NECON – in September 1996 for the politics of that era.
By Sulaiman Salawudeen
There comes a time in the life of a people when they must confront unsavoury truths about their own existence and ask themselves whether what they call a country actually really exists beyond and is anything more than just a hollow shell! Nigeria, continuously touted as Giant of Africa, has become a phantom, mere geographical expression without substance, a tragic experiment that has failed its citizens so egregiously that many are compelled to declare: Nigeria is nowhere anymore!
To such, what is seen is just vast expanse of land where millions of people are trapped in survivalist struggles, condemned to navigate daily horrors of insecurity, corruption, and economic strangulation. The very essence of a functioning country has evaporated, amidst the din and flurry of errors that collude to reduce modest hopes to tall dreams, and basic pursuits to unreachable imaginings!
By Osilama E. Osilama
Nigeria today faces a troubling economic paradox. Prices rise quickly when economic conditions worsen, yet they rarely decline when those conditions improve. This phenomenon—experienced daily by millions of Nigerians has quietly evolved into one of the most dangerous distortions in the country’s economic structure.
Though
I am not an economist, it increasingly appears that Nigeria operates what could
be described as a “one-way economy,” where prices move easily upward but almost
never downward. The implications of this pattern are profound, particularly for
the housing sector and the survival of the Nigerian middle class.
If Nigeria must build a fair and functional economy, government must confront the economics of pricing through deliberate policy reforms and, if necessary, a strong executive bill supported by legislation.
By Alade Rotimi-John
Irish born playwright and critic-at-large, Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an intolerable thorn in the flesh of the British establishment for more than half a century. He is popularly quoted as saying that when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
Before a stupefied global audience, Daniel Bwala who doubles as President Tinubu’s Adviser on Policy Communications was deplorably dull and awful as he outrageously defended his bewildering actions in office as being in the role of performing his duty or in the tour of duty.
By Owei Lakemfa
A diplomat from the Group of Seven, G7, countries in March 2026, invited me to dinner in Abuja. The first thing he asked was how I was coping with water supply. The diplomatic mission, like some others, is suffering disruption of water supply. I explained that since I relocated to Abuja from Lagos a quarter of a century ago, I had dug a borehole for my water supply.
Diplomats from industrialised
countries complaining of constant water supply disruption is understandable for
they do not experience this in their countries. But for the Nigerian people who
may need to sit, squat or stand on the mandate of politicians, such complaint
might border on treason.
On March 25, 2026, a certain 38-year-old Hamisu Abdullahi, a father of four and a ‘common’ carpenter, had the audacity to make such a complaint.
By Chuks Iloegbunam
Whoever believed that politics operated only on certainties? Or that imponderables were never factored into any of it? The Nigerian experience is blatant. It placed a spreadsheet before all-comers and delivered new truths.
A loudspeaker who previously believed that he was the custodian of all the answers, jetted at public expense from Abuja to London, where, inside a studio, he nestled in accustomed comfort for a long-scheduled media interview. However, he soon discovered to his chagrin that his buttocks had gone into a disagreeable embrace with a spikes-matted platform.
“Suddenly becoming talkative like weaverbird/Summoned at offside of dream remembered,” to quote from the first movement of Christopher Okigbo’s ‘Siren Limits,’ acrimonious voices of political certitude rose in unison. Peter Obi obviously had a hand in the fiasco. Mr. Obi lived in London for decades, and, during that period, probably struck a friendship with Al Jazeera’s Head-to-Head anchor Mehdi Hassan.
Nigeria Is Not Among Them...
“Money doesn’t buy happiness,” Elon Musk once said.
Yet how people live, earn, and cope with daily realities still affects their
overall well-being.
That is part
of what the World Happiness Report 2026 tries
to measure. The report ranks countries using indicators such as income, life
expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and
perceived corruption.
Across
Africa, the latest ranking shows how these factors continue to shape people’s
experience of life.
Here are the
10 happiest countries in Africa in 2026.
By Banji Ojewale
Among Thailand’s over 71 million citizens are some one million+ Christians boxed into Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, along with other independent groups like the Church of Christ in Thailand, CCT, which is considered the oldest and largest Protestant umbrella organization in this southeast Asian kingdom.
Muslims post a figure of 7.5 million. But there’s an overwhelming majority of tens of millions of followers of Buddhism, one of the globe’s largest faiths which teaches an oriental version of Stoicism. Founded about 3000 years ago by Gautama Buddha, it is the national non-theistic religion and philosophy of Thailand.
By Adekunle Adekoya
It was actually very pathetic reading reports of apologies made by Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu, earlier in the week. Reading his apology nearly made me puke; they were the words of a politician used to, and schooled in, dressing up inefficiencies in mandate actualisation with rhetoric.
By Olu Fasan
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is comatose on a deathbed; it’s on life support. The doctors (INEC and the judiciary) are colluding to switch off the life-support machine. They believe the party needs euthanasia or assisted suicide. Yet, what’s really needed is to remove the external factors that interacted with PDP’s genetic predisposition to cause its disease.
But virtually all of PDP’s children (governors and legislators), who should fight to save its life, have abandoned it and joined its enemy, All Progressives Congress, APC, which is behind the external factors. However, one reprobate child (Nyesom Wike), a bully, who works for the enemy but “remains” in PDP, wants to “hold it down” for APC’s Bola Tinubu, and use the PDP’s structures to help him win re-election as president next year.
By Aguiyi Joseph Obinna
In a courtesy visit to the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in Ilorin on Tuesday, retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, unleashed yet another round of unverified political commentary that has once again exposed his fatally flawed character. According to the Vanguard report, Salami declared that Peter Obi “ought not have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election” because, in his words, “by the time he lost the PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to INEC” and the Constitution forbids independent candidacy.
He drew a parallel with Kano Governor Abba Yusuf and blamed “incompetence” and “bad eggs” among judges for these “wrong verdicts.” This is not the sober reflection of a retired jurist; it is the reckless rant of a man who has repeatedly been shown the door by the same judiciary he now seeks to ridicule, only to be pitied back into relevance.
By Adekunle Adekoya
The war in the Middle East, being fought by the United States and Israel against Iran, is still raging, and its outcomes are being felt all over the world. In the early days of the war which began February 28, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the aftermath of air strikes on selected targets in Tehran, the Iranian capital. Khamenei’s death occurred as part of a wider joint operation by the United States and Israel, using strategic locations intelligence from the US’s Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, to determine the whereabouts of several Iranian leaders.
Now, Khamenei was not only Iran’s Supereme Leader, he was also acknowledged as the leader of all Shi’a Muslims worldwide. In Nigeria, Shi’a Muslims are organised under a mission called the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, promoted and led by a cleric, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky.
By Owei Lakemfa
It was, undoubtedly, a difficult time for President Bola Tinubu to visit the United Kingdom, UK. Yes, he is a regular visitor. In fact, since he became Nigeria President on May 29, 2023, he has visited the mother country at least nine times, including spending weeks at a stretch on private visits and “working vacation”.
But what made his March 17-19, 2026 a “monumental visit’ is the fact that this was a State Visit. He was received by King Charles, one of those I refer to as a gainfully unemployed individual, GUI. He was also received by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a politician difficult to pin down to principles.
By Owei Lakemfa
Fuel prices in Nigeria went up an average 40 percent within days of the United States, US, and Israel attacking Iran. Diesel prices went up 50 percent. This development shot up prices of transportation, and more Nigerians who cannot afford the price hike took to trekking.
Mr. Peter Obi, former Anambra State Governor, lamented the plight of Nigerians and the devastating effects on industry caused by recurring fuel price hikes. He argued that these rapid increases illustrate how vulnerable to external shocks the country’s economy is, and how quickly we are impacted by foreign events. In his analysis: “The reason for this is straightforward: most countries, whether they are oil-producing or non-oil-producing, maintain strategic petroleum reserves to cushion against supply or price shocks. This means that when there is a disruption in the global oil market, they can release part of these reserves to stabilise supply. However, Nigeria lacks such a buffer, so the impact is felt almost immediately.”
