THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and some state governments, like Kaduna, say they neither negotiate nor pay ransom to bandits. But government being incapable of preventing the mass kidnap of citizens, especially school children, and inability to rescue them, leaves families and friends with no choice but to negotiate with the bandits and pay hefty ransom. So, Read More…
BAGRAM AIRFIELD and Military Base, 70 kilometres north of Kabul was the epicentre of the 40-country coalition war to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan. At a point in 2012, over 100,000 U.S. troops passed through Bagram which is also a notorious detention centre where no human rights are observed. It was the symbol of American and NATO might Read More…
THE SOUL-NUMBING trend is in your face. Homicide has become our everyday companion. It wasn’t always like this. Life used to be sacred. It was not considered fashionable for acorns to be devoured before they became trees. Now, we are inundated with gory tales of gruesome stabbings, decapitations, gun violence and more. If you turn Read More…
THE NEO-COLONIAL TRAJECTORY of almost all African states, the neo-liberal policies they pursue and their anti-people programmes, lead in virtually all cases, to constant conflicts between African political leaders and workers. So it is rare for workers to eulogise their political elite. So, for them at the continental level to collectively eulogise and honour a particular African president is Read More…
THE CIVIC SPACE IS shrinking by the day as my countrymen and women contend for the soul of the nation. Nigeria is pregnant. Veteran political midwives predict a long and painful labour. But they do not foresee a stillbirth as happened in 1993 under the watchful eyes of one former student of the redoubtable Eme Read More…
INEC HAS COMMENCED voter registration for the 2023 elections beginning 28 June 2021 until August. It comes against the backdrop of some confusion in the South-East concerning its political future given recent events. INEC planned the voters’ roll initially for February 2021, and this column noted that it would play a critical role towards 2023. Read More…
I CANNOT BELIEVE I am writing this. The events are a nightmare that will not go away. Pa Joseph Oritseretsolokumi Ayomike, an 83-year-old man of culture and immense intellect, and his wife, Dr. Chinyere ‘Chichi’ Shirley Ayomike, opera soloist/duetist, Technical Vocational Education and Training, TVET, expert, and a senior lecturer at the Delta State University, Read More…
THREE NEWS-BREAKS, the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB); the storming of the residence of Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Sunday Igboho, and the passing of the Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly — nearly consigned the seminal treatise enunciated by former President Goodluck Jonathan at the 13th Joe-Kyari Gadzama Read More…
IF SHEIK AHMAD GUMI’S intention in rubbishing the security agencies and pontificating as the self-appointed capon of banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria, is to attract attention — he has succeeded spectacularly. Although the government pretends not to notice the man’s dangerous rhetoric, the Nigerian Army which was at the receiving end of his latest series Read More…
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts”; says Dalai Lama XIV. “Differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” Such sentiments are desperately needed in Nigeria today. Different parts of the country have been vending different positions on the problem with Read More…