Tag: saharareporters

The Lekki Toll Gate incidence has raised a lot of controversy. The certainty of what really happened has become caught in multiple narratives. While many stick to it that a massacre occurred, the government insists there was only a shooting of blank bullets and where there were few civilian casualties. On the night of the incident, the news was first that 49 Nigerians or more had been shot dead by the Nigerian Army at Lekki Toll Gate while trying to enforce a curfew that was first fixed for 4pm, then…

If Donald J. Trump were President of Wakanda on the eve of an election, that country would have received several warnings from the US State Department on the need for free and fair polls, and the necessity for all parties to play by the rules. But what is playing by the rules if parties will not accept an orderly transfer of power? During two recent off-cycle state elections in the South of Nigeria, for example, the US Embassy threatened to invoke visa restrictions on candidates, agents or security officials who…

The cat is out of the bag in Nigeria! The ongoing massacre, arrest, and incarceration of Nigerian youth across the Southern region by the hounds of the British Empire masquerading as Nigerian soldiers and police officers, shows who is actually calling the shots in Nigeria. The most powerful person in Nigeria is never the President or any of the motley figures parading the chambers of parliament in Nigeria. No, it has always been the British High Commissioner to Nigeria. He or she rules Nigeria through the Fulani elite for the…

The brouhaha over the article: “Bola Tinubu: The Fall Of An Emperor at Lekki toll gate”, will continue to generate different reactions from friends and foes, probably till 2023, when the manifestation or otherwise of this fall shall become evident before Lagosians, Nigerians and the world at large. There is nothing unethical or ethnical about unveiling the masquerade,  named Jagaban, who has in over two decades learnt and perfected  his dancing skills and performed eye popping somersaults to the admiration and envy of his admirer and foes respectively. The people…

Poverty. Corruption. Unemployment. Police brutality. Armed robbery. Hunger. Crippling economy. Kidnapping. Boko Haram. Fulani herdsmen terrorists. Crumbling schools. Dilapidated infrastructure. Sub-standard education. Epileptic electricity. Lack of portable water. No hospitals. No drugs. No healthcare coverage. No social safety net. Nothing works. Nigerians wonder why these calamities are not enough to shake Buhari out of his comfortable, familiar stupor. There is an absolute brake on change in this country. Every Nigerian acknowledges these problems. Every Nigerian agrees that the problems require a visionary leader. A young, energetic, vibrant, and brilliant leader.…

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has fined Channels Television, AIT and Arise TV N3 million each over their “unprofessional coverage” of the historical EndSARS protests and the unfortunate carnage that followed suit. The announcement was made in Abuja by the Acting Director-General of NBC, Prof Armstrong Idachaba who said the reportage of the protests by the stations was capable of leading to a breakdown of law and order but the option of fine will serve as a warning to the stations and others. Like many other Nigerians, the imposition of…

Many Nigerians are (mini) psychopaths and our priggish nature has blinded us to the reality in our society. We have managed to create a society where some people have to scramble for food: the most basic on the hierarchy of needs. Were we expecting them to wait till they fall sick and die out of hunger? If you’re going to blame a poorly behaved child, be sure to examine his/her parents who have probably modeled for him such behaviour. Sane societies are products of good leadership across the board, when…

There is no government presence in the federal capital territory (FCT). Yes. In fact, there is no such thing as leadership in the FCT. If there was, I would certainly know being a habitué of the city. There are only vulgar structures which are purely administrative habitations of the federal government. Beyond the vast jungle of bricks and glass, the FCT is rudderless. There are many sore points in the ungovernance of the FCT. But I will situate my concerns in only two. Security is in a parlous state and…

On the morning of Friday 23, 2020, two weeks after civil protests, under the banner of #EndSARS, began in Nigeria, I woke up to a WhatsApp message from one of my former students who asks, after making a few comments on President Muhammadu Buhari’s uninspiring broadcast the previous evening, ‘What next, sir?’ The question was rhetorical. It also conveyed a deep sense of loss and despair that is shared by many who had listened to the President’s speech—a speech that was made rather grudgingly, prompted—or forced—by the insistence of citizens…

Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, aka Sanwo-Tinubu, is one of the agents of aged despot being used to stamp out domestic dissent. Sanwo-Olu in cahoot with General Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his political godfather, violated constitutional safeguards and disregard the rights of #EndSARS protesters at Lekki Toll Gate by using soldiers to fire live ammunition on defenseless peaceful protesters.  Sanwo-Olu, Tinubu had vigorously denied knowledge and involvement in the killings of the protesters. So also Buhari who in his hollow address to the nation deliberately tap-danced around the…