Hospital clowns are used to lessen pain of children and adolescents admitted to hospital with acute and chronic conditions.  Studies showed that children and adolescents who were in the presence of hospital clowns, either with or without a parent present, reported significantly less anxiety during a range of medical procedures, as well as improved psychological adjustment. Hospital clowns also reduced… Read More

One of the first things I picked up very early in this business of public affairs analysis is something senior colleagues referred to as Afghanistanism. If you were told a column, story or essay, you had submitted for publication reeked of Afghanistanism, it was clearly a subtle kind of condemnation. It meant dabbling into a remote subject that was not… Read More

Much has been and will continue to be written about the Taliban’s takeover of military and political power in what is now called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. It is an emerging story that has left the world aghast at its sheer incredulity and the implications for Afghans, its neighbours and the whole world.  For sub-saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria which… Read More

The 2023 presidential poll in Nigeria is still two years away but political permutations and tractations have commenced in earnest. The (mis)ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party are positioning themselves to retain power post-Buharism. Since President Buhari has failed to deliver on anything and change or transform Nigeria it would be very difficult for the APC to convince Nigerians to… Read More

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as  useful. And so Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. This cannot be truer anywhere else but in Nigeria. Religion has taken a very gory dimension in the shores of our… Read More

No doubt, the massive embarrassment of the Sunday Dare led Team Nigeria at the just concluded Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan is not what  a serious country like Nigeria should sweep under the carpet, especially when she  prides herself as the Giant of Africa.  The series of scandals, the international disgrace and the back to back embarrassment which followed our… Read More

Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, retired general and former military Head of State will turn 80 tomorrow, Tuesday, August 17. I congratulate him primarily because I also pray to grow old. But I do not pray that in my old age my children will organise gatherings where people will try to whitewash my deeds. One of such occasions was the August 12,… Read More