At the rate Nigeria’s patrimony is being pillaged by known and unknown but well connected rats, the Guinness Book of Records will have to be updated to recognise our frog leap to primacy in thievery. Imagine, the Antwerp diamond heist used to be considered one of the largest robberies in history in which loose diamonds, Read More…
Wole Olaoye
Coming to equity with unclean hands
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are”, said Benjamin Franklin. Those words commend themselves to us today as we examine the landmark ruling of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, on the prosecution of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The judgement Read More…
Not A Poisoned Chalice
Some people think that the next president of Nigeria will inherit a poisoned chalice because he (yes, he) will find out that what he thought was a throne was but a marble-coated trap programmed to de-ball. If the economic situation is as bad as many experts see it, why are so many people hell-bent on Read More…
PDP’s Honey Badger
Nyesom Wike’s day job is to administer the affairs of Rivers State as Governor. But in actual fact, he is more than that. He is the ‘bee’ of Nigeria’s leading opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). The bee makes sweet honey and is loyal to its colony or beehive. The sweetness of the bee’s Read More…
Borrowing to live a lie
If you are not aware that one ‘mudu’ of yellow Garri which used to sell for N140 in Abuja is now N500, you would at least know that one litre of diesel has jumped from N240 per litre to N820. That was why my barber disagreed with the headline of the newspaper I was reading: Read More…
Fire on the Mountain
“There’s fire on the mountainand nobody seems to be on the runThere’s fire on the mountain top and no one is a-running… One day the river will overflowAnd there’ll be nowhere for us to goAnd we will run, runWishing we had put out the fire In this season of university closure and youth rudderlessness, the lyrics Read More…
Hassan, Son of Kukah
Today, we roll out the drums for Matthew whose other name is Hassan, the son of Kukah. The young man from Anchuna, Zangon Kataf, heard the Call and, forsaking everything, embraced the sacerdotal commitment of Obedience and Chastity. How does a brilliant lad forsake the world when he had everything at his feet? Wondrous are Read More…
USA: Visa By Ordeal
There are only very few instances of humiliation and frustration that can compare with what the average Nigerian goes through in a quest for a US visa. You would think America was Paradise or something close. You would think that the applicant’s very life depended on the granting or denial of that visa. But if Read More…
If Water Can Run Uphill in Kenya…
To what extent does the last presidential election in Kenya foreshadow what is likely to happen in Nigeria in 2023? I am not one to draw undue parallels, knowing as I do that there are different intervening variables and sub-texts which may render a blanket generalisation sterile. However, there are many similarities that signpost the Read More…
The Third Slavery
Have you heard the news? About 727 medical doctors trained in Nigeria relocated to the United Kingdom between December 2021 and May 2022. As of November 2021, 8,983 Nigerian-trained doctors were working in the UK. That figure has now jumped to 9,710. Nigeria is the country with the third highest number of foreign doctors working Read More…