I have never made a secret of my admiration for Col Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (Rtd). Right from the time he broke into public consciousness with his brief stint as Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority to the time he came unto his own as governor of old Kaduna State (including the present Katsina Read More…
Tag: Wole Olaoye
Toast to Soyinka & Olatunji Dare
An ingrate is but a robber in disguise. I am thrilled to celebrate, on the same platform today, two great Nigerians who have impacted greatly on our collective intellectual environment and whose birthdays providentially fall within a few days of each other. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka turned 90 on July 13 while Emeritus Professor Olatunji Read More…
Garlands for Humphrey Nwosu
One of the personalities I had expected to pump hands with at the dinner marking the 2024 Democracy Day in commemoration of the June 12 struggle, was the former chairman of the National Electoral Commission, 82-year-old Prof Humphrey Nwosu. His absence filled the State House Banquet Hall as if the pillars holding the rafters of Read More…
Military or civilian, a coup is a coup!
Coup-making is not the exclusive preserve of soldiers or the armed forces. Civilians, too, do stage coups. In Nigeria, we have had our fair share of coups and counter-coups and have resolved that our collective aspirations as a people are best served by a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Read More…
Enough!
Enough is enough! That was the sentiment expressed by Nigerians following the recent gale of kidnappings and terror attacks unleashed by bandits on defenceless Nigerians in various parts of Nigeria, especially in the northern parts (Kaduna, Plateau and Taraba states) where trips hitherto classified as routine are now acknowledged as a walk in the valley Read More…
Wike: From Victim to Landlord
What goes around comes around. It was in realisation of that truism that the inimitable Robert Mugabe shared his now viral quote: “Treat every part of your towel nicely because the part that wipes your buttocks today will wipe your face tomorrow.” If the officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) had known that Read More…
Presidential ‘To Do’ List (1)
Celebrations are in order as we savour the near-miss that almost rendered us impecunious. A near miss, indeed. We must never forget how we got there. And, going forward, how can the Tinubu administration tweak the government’s policies and programmes to favour our largely disillusioned people? P&ID Shakedown Some Nigerian public officials hate their country Read More…
That Abraham’s children may live together in peace
They both claim Abraham as their progenitor. Physically alike to the outside eye, it is difficult to tell one from the other but for ethnic differences such as the shape of the beard, Muslim skullcap (Taqiyah) or Jewish kippah, and other cultural peculiarities, they are cousins but can hardly tolerate each other. Providence has fated Read More…
Political arsonists on the prowl!
There is a negative pattern that has been established by some personages under the canopy of religion with the ultimate aim of spreading falsehood and engendering hate between tribes, tongues and faiths in Nigeria. We are all supposed to bow and tremble before their sanctimonious thrones because theirs is the voice from Above. Many analysts Read More…
Sleaze On Rails
Nigerian corruption is aeroamphibious. It permeates air, land and sea. The other day, when it was reported that an aircraft was mercifully grounded because its tank was laden with a mixture of aviation fuel and water, nobody laughed. I can swear to that because the usual “happiest people on earth” who cobble online jokes out Read More…