Fake Independence: So, Tinubu Can Tell EFCC What To Do!

 By Olu Fasan

Some Nigerians commit the delusional sin of believing that once a state institution has the word “independent” prefixed to its name, it is, indeed, independent.

They believe that critical state agencies created by statute or the Constitution to ensure security and law and order, to guarantee justice and rule of law, to safeguard electoral integrity and democratic norms and to fight corruption and malfeasance in public office do, in fact, discharge their responsibilities dutifully without fear and without favour, deliberately removed from presidential control.

Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway As Symptom Of Something Frightful

 By Dianam Dakolo

A ruler's twisted judgment is what immediately becomes apparent when the US$13 billion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway comes under close scrutiny. A project never canvassed by any community along the entire stretch covered, from Lagos to Cross River State!

For, as one-time Governor of that State, Donald Duke, disclosed on national television on August 5, "There is already a road to Calabar.... I have driven along it several times....If the road is poor, fix it." 

The only possible explanation for the project, which was awarded through 'restricted bidding' to a company in which the ruler has substantial interest, in violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, was provided in the comments of the former Cross River Governor: " 

Presidency-Catholic Bishops Saga: When Defenders Are Attackers

 By Adekunle Adekoya

I really don’t think there is anybody living in this country at the moment that is satisfied with the state of affairs. Don’t let me bore you — everyone knows where it’s pinching hardest — whether in the cost of transportation, or the risen and rising cost of food, or near-unaffordable accommodation, sky-high cost of fuel energy (gas, petrol, diesel), insecurity, etcetira. If there is anybody as yet untouched by these, such a person, or group of persons must be doing things we can’t do, or know not how to do to make money. As a result, people are worried, and perplexed at the state of affairs.

*Tinubu with the Catholic Bishops

This Friday morning, not a few people would have woken up from disturbed sleep caused by an empty stomach, and worse, they can’t even see the prospects for a breakfast, no matter how little. So, when top clerics of the Catholic Church, specifically the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria sought and obtained an audience with the president on this undesirable state of affairs, I think they were doing a duty to seek better options for all of us, irrespective of our diverse faiths.

As Bola Tinubu Plays God

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Listening to President Bola Tinubu’s response to the plea of Nigerian Catholic Bishops that he should make the yoke of Nigerians lighter, I couldn’t help but remember the Biblical story of King Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 10:1-15.

*Tinubu

After the death of King Solomon, Rehoboam, his son, went to Shechem to be crowned king and the whole assembly of Israel supplicated: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam asked for three days for consultations. And, indeed, he consulted, first with the elders who had served his father during his lifetime.

“How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked. “If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever,” they riposted.

Tacking Poverty In Nigeria: Onus On Crony billionaires, Not Self-Made Musicians!

 By Olu Fasan

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s irrepressible first lady, recently made two controversial interventions on the country’s socio-economic situation. First, she told the jobless to start selling akara, roasted corn or kuli-kuli to eke out a living. 

Then, she admonished rich young musicians to help the poor. She received a torrent of criticism for the comments. Yet they contain a kernel of truth and a fundamental flaw. I explore both here, arguing the remarks are more deeply flawed than valid.

Economy Improving For Tinubu, Worsening For The People

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu received in audience the leadership of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), led by its President, Most Rev. Matthew Ndagoso. The clerics were on what was described as a courtesy visit.

*Tinubu

After remarks by the leader of the delegation, the president responded, and I quote, inter alia:

“I have listened to you carefully, and most importantly, your key areas are security and education. I can tell you categorically with sincerity that the country has been placed on a sound footing. The economy has recovered. The alarm for bankruptcy and dark tunnel of uncertainty that we had when I came in has been changed.

“The spirit of the people is lifting, and the economic turmoil that we feared is cleared. The economy has been delivered from bankruptcy.

“I always say, because of my background and profession, that I inherited the assets and liabilities of my predecessor. I have been running with it. This government has stabilised, and there is prosperity on the horizon. Life is improving,” he stated.

Too Many Fake Tendencies In Nigeria

 By Tonnie Iredia

Notwithstanding its nebulous status, the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) was able to appoint a director-general and hundreds of staff. It also secured an office space at the federal secretariat and indeed found its way into the nation’s budget with a Budget Code 0111062001 assigned to it.

This huge achievement was attained by the presence in Nigeria of too many fake tendencies that can easily be put into use by some smart citizens. Although many citizens are baffled by stories of what the fake agency had done before an alarm was raised, one can conclude that many such bodies exist in our clime and that except concrete steps are taken to curtail the tendencies which give them oxygen, many more of such 419 institutions and entities will soon spring up and operate seamlessly in all the 3 arms of government.

Peter Obi: Hunger And The Insensitivity of Mr. President

 I watched with deep concern the statement made by President Bola Tinubu to the Catholic Bishops who visited his office, that there has always been hunger in Nigeria, even before he was born.

*Tinubu and wife, Oluremi

While it is true that hunger has been a part of human life and has existed in our country for decades, such a statement appears insensitive to the plight of the millions of Nigerians who face worsening economic hardship today. More importantly, we must focus on the facts and the measurable outcomes of governance.

On Bola Tinubu's 'Missing' Primary And Secondary Schools Particulars!

 By Solomon Dalung

I just read the published particulars of presidential candidates released by INEC for the 2027 election, and one thing immediately caught my attention.

*Tinubu

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reportedly left the sections for his primary and secondary school qualifications blank, while listing only his university degree.

Gowon’s Book Of Barefaced Lies

 By Chuks Iloegbunam

This is General Yakubu Gowon, PhD, (91), on page 201 of his autobiography titled My Life of Duty & Allegiance: “On impulse, I called the airport at Ikeja to instruct Major Paul Dickson who oversaw the airport to send a helicopter to Ibadan to evacuate the Supreme Commander.” This was hours after the countercoup of July 29, 1966, was underway. According to this storyteller, “My immediate worry was that General Ironsi’s life might be in danger if I did not make effort to reach him as quickly as possible to give him a situation report.” The striking thing about Gowon’s fable is not this lie per se, but the artlessness of the man’s mendacity.

As of July 29, 1966, there was no Major Paul Dickson anywhere in the Nigerian Armed Forces. The only Paul Dickson in existence on that date was an Air Force staff sergeant whose official assignment at the Ikeja Airport pertained only to controlling other ranks on sentry duty within the facility’s perimetres. This was the man Gowon claimed to have instructed to carry out the evacuation of a besieged General Aguiyi-Ironsi from Ibadan, a city 113 kilometres away from Lagos as the crow flies! Once Nigerians behold a Sandhurst-trained officer, they automatically ascribe omniscience to them. General Gowon was, of course, Sandhurst-trained. But he knows that, placed on the crucibles of logicality and credulity, his Dickson story is impudent fiction.

GCK In Ogun…Dead Bones Will Live Again

 By Banji Ojewale

In January 2025 ahead of his trip to the United States of America to honour Washington’s invitation to the inauguration of President Donald Trump at his second coming, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, wrote an article in the respected American medium, The Christian Post, where he raised issues about man’s strange double standard in the face of God’s generationally tested ability to tame any crisis.

*Gen Obasanjo welcomes Pastor Kumuyi to    Abeokuta, Ogun State, during an earlier GCK

He said: “We trust God with the saving of our souls, believing He holds the keys to Heaven, but when it comes to our day-to-day concerns, anxiety often takes the wheel. Why is it that we can trust God for eternity but not for today? This is a question worth exploring because it exposes the depth of our faith…At its heart, worry is a failure to trust God fully. It is a subtle but powerful expression of doubt that whispers, ‘God might not come through.’ When we allow these thoughts to consume us, we enter a cycle of negative self-talk that paralyzes our faith and undermines our confidence in God.’’

‘Fake’ Agency: Tinubu’s Amoral Rule Breeds Impunity, Abuse Of Power!

 By Olu Fasan

There is a shocking paradox, a bewildering moral hypocrisy, at the heart of President Bola Tinubu’s leadership. On the one hand, he is actively prosecuting previous public officers for corrupt practices, claiming to have secured over 7,000 convictions since he came to power three years ago.

Yet, on the other hand, he presides over a moral cesspit, where ministers routinely abuse power and act with utter impunity, where some are so powerful they can literally get away with murder, protected by their fealty and sycophancy to the president, where governance is utterly devoid of transparency and accountability, and where conflicts of interest are so blatant, with a total blurring of public and private interests. These malfeasances are the subjects of this intervention, but we must start with the ongoing “fake” agency saga.

Nigeria As Federal Republic Of Asiwaju? Why Not!

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

At the rate some public officials are going, no one should be surprised if a bill surfaces in the National Assembly tomorrow seeking to rename the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Federal Republic of Asiwaju. When that happens, we will seize being Nigerians and become Asiwajuans! What a great name. Anyone saying God forbid as Nigerians are wont to do is not reading the signs correctly.

*Tinubu

In a country where public officials – elected and appointed – are falling over themselves and elbowing each other to please one man, God is not in the business of forbidden anything. Come to think of it, how long did it take the National Assembly to pass the bill that changed the national anthem in May 2024? Six days!

Nelson Mandela And ANC’s Many Failures

 By Ochereome Nnanna

If you ask anyone, “who is the greatest African of all time?”, the name of Nelson Mandela of South Africa will likely pop up. I took this question to three Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms: ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. They all chorused “Dr Nelson Mandela.” 

*Mandela 

While Gemini and Claude held Kwame Nkrumah in second place with Mansa Musa third, ChatGPT put Mansa Musa second and Nkrumah third. In typical fashion, ChatGPT went on to rank six other greats: Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, Haile Selassie, Thomas Sankara, Shaka Zulu and Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Peter Obi: The Unending Killings In Benue And Plateau Worrisome!

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.

When Things Fall Apart...God Sets People Apart

Book Review

Author: Eunice O. Obidi

Publishers: Kraft Books Limited

Pagination: 250

Reviewer: Banji Ojewale

When things fell apart for Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the world also broke into one thousand and one shards, never to return to the old stable order. But in Eunice Obidi’s Set Apart, the dissolution of family and its sacred values isn’t succeeded by unredeemed disintegration, disharmony and dispersions.

Obidients, Kwankwasiya And Compatriots

 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.

Obidients And The Gambo Sawaba Constant

 By Chuks Iloegbunam 

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba (1933-2001) is one of the reasons no one is prepared to teach anyone a thing about contemporary Nigerian history. Had this political activist’s remarkable odyssey been generally known, people would long have internalised protest against state-sponsored injustice as a way of life. She was routinely subjected to torture. 

*Hajiya Gambo Sawaba 

She once told an audience that all her front teeth were artificial, the natural ones having been knocked out by oppressors. On one occasion, a piece of broken bottle was used to shave off her hair. She was chased from Kano, ordered never to return to the commercial city, and forcefully deposited in Zaria, from whence she came. With 16 incarcerations, she holds the record for the most imprisoned Nigerian woman. 

Airport Saga: Peter Obi Replies Festus Keyamo

TO THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF AVIATION, MR. FESTUS KEYAMO

                ---------------------

Contrary to your account of events surrounding Mr. Peter Obi’s transit through the Abuja Airport on Saturday, July 4, it has become necessary to set the record straight.

Mr. Peter Obi does not have any police or civil defence personnel attached to him in Abuja, despite being entitled to VVIP protection by virtue of his status as a leading opposition figure in Nigeria. He certainly does not have a police officer serving as his driver. Your reference to a “police driver” appears to have been based on the assumption that he enjoys the level of security protection ordinarily accorded to someone of his standing. He does not.

PFIPC Scandal: The Joke Is On Aso Rock

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Nigeria is one country where scandals break at the speed of light. As a public commentator, you can hardly keep pace.

*Adeyemi: DG of the 'fake' agency

On May 15, terrorists raided three schools in the Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, abducting 46 people, including 39 schoolchildren. The victims, who include seven teachers and a toddler, have spent almost two months at God knows where. Two teachers were killed – one of them during the raid while the other, Mr. Michael Oyedokun, a mathematics teacher, was beheaded in captivity.

On the same day, terrorists struck in Borno State, whisking away more than 50 schoolchildren from Mussa Central Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Askira-Uba Local Government Area. Most of the children are below the age of 10. Despite the initial outrage, Nigerians have moved on as they are wont to do.