Category: OP-ED

Person Of The Year 2019 Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq On a daily basis, almost every news outlet in Nigeria shows the image of one particular confident and mysterious woman or news of her ministry. The images shows a poised woman conservatively and religiously dressed in the traditional Hausa/Fulani attire, her gaze steady, her face soft and her demeanour determined. It… Read More

Democratic system of government vests supreme power in citizens. The people choose directly representatives to exercise that power. In return the people expect both the government officials and government to be responsive, responsible, and accountable.  The peoples’ representatives are charged with upholding the constitution and conducting the business of government for the benefit of all. The Attorney-General is the chief… Read More

In 2018, Omoyele Sowore said he got into politics to “disrupt” the Nigerian political landscape like he did the media landscape. Many people thought he was being quixotic and self-aggrandising when he said that.  But he is turning out to be accurate. Since 1999, no lone individual has disrupted Nigeria’s political space with as much consequence as he has done.… Read More

Exactly 14 days ago on December 9 – the International Anti-corruption Day, and the eve of the World Human Rights Day, an emerging and emergent alliance of citizen’s organisations had come together to address a press conference on the deteriorating state of our nation. Our focus and the issues we addressed were around the shrinking civic space, the increasingly brazen… Read More

I am pleased to deliver this keynote address at this 2nd summit of the Nigerian pro-democracy movement. This summit is taking place in the context of deepening national contradictions and a clearly sinister political atmosphere with a consequent fissiparous impact on the country’s unity, a dynamic that hitherto had been woven above class divisions and ethnic boundaries. The contradictions have… Read More

Since May this year, the once ancient and cosmopolitan city of Kano is heaving breathlessly and except the major protagonists tread carefully, something might just give and the consequences are predictable. As a daughter of the soil, as they say, I am wont not to refer to any of those – Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and Emir Muhammadu Sanusi – as… Read More

President Muhammadu Buhari must no longer continue to betray the vision of #RevolutionNow, being the call for protest against bad governance in Nigeria by the renowned anti-corruption and human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore. Similarly, the President ought to embrace another powerful call this week for a revolution from no other than his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi… Read More

Fear pervades Nigerians’ lives and Nigerian politics. Fear has been in the air since President Muhammadu Buhari won reelection. Fear has been surging since he closed the borders and announced a visa-free entry to all African countries starting next year. Nigerians are more afraid today than they have been in a long time. TY Danjuma, a master of fear knows… Read More

I am yet to understand the basis for a new bill on compulsory basic education for Nigerian children when a subsisting Act on the same issue has not been implemented to the letter. The new bill, sponsored by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has reportedly scaled second reading at the plenary session. Mohammed Monguno from Borno State, while… Read More

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, is one person, who has felt the sting of the avarice of the National Assembly. At different points, he described the institution in blackened terms. Though the former President may hold a provincial grudge against the legislature for “obvious reasons” – the botched third-term agenda – the institution is just as he has daubed it. On… Read More