Category: Opinions

Although the coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to global public health and economy, this year has seen some positive developments, and some signs of hope for humanity and pointers to a better future. One of such developments is the launching of an advocacy campaign against witch persecution on the continent of Africa. Witchcraft allegations constitute a form of death… Read More

Some of the reactions to Senator Kashim Shettima’s recent explosive interview on Arise TV, which have been trending on social media, betray the authors’ faded memories of the former Governor of Borno state. At the time an echo chamber was built by the Jonathan administration to isolate the government from public opinion, Shettima’s was the voice that rippled through. He… Read More

The climax of the Kankara melodrama was the reception organised for the return of the kidnapped Katsina schoolboys when the students were chosen to be spoken to in Hausa, by President Muhammadu Buhari.  One would have concluded on previous primary languages as being the expression of persons who suffer dementia. But Buhari’s antecedents will not excuse dementia as reason for… Read More

Chioma is having troubles with her mother-in-law. I know because she made it headline news on her social media page. She does not share her concerns with the other party in the nuptial contract or with a trained counsellor, but with aliens on social media who are sweating on the treadmill of their own problems and who have no understanding… Read More

Governments spend money on acquiring goods and providing services for the public. The spending is usually planned in an annual budget which is signed into law. However, there might be some off-budget spending that requires no legislative approvals. Such expenditures, known as public sector spending, can include education, healthcare, social protection, and defence. For Nigeria, the spending is on its… Read More

As we celebrate yet another Christmas, our modern history is history of repeated injuries, injustices, wickedness, and abuses on the part of the ruling class toward poor Nigerians. The ruling class has turned Nigeria into a wasteland of pain, heartache, frustration, dashed hopes, and wasted life. Daily living in Nigeria is a constant stress and struggle in a jungle called… Read More

If we could cast a vote in the December 8 presidential election in Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo, would have won re-election by miles. Nigerians love him to bits. He talks a good game. In the first two years or more of his presidency, I remember a number of videos shared with me on the Akufo-Addo promise. On a tour of the… Read More

Today makes it twenty-one years since Comrade Ola Oni passed on. He was one of the greatest leaders and teachers on the Nigerian Left, from the ’60s till his death. He, along with Eskor Toyo, Baba Omojola and others split from the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party in Augsut 1964 (i.e., a year and four months after SWAFP was formed)… Read More

I was proud to arrive in Nigeria and begin my third ambassadorial posting last November.  2020 will long be remembered as the year of the pandemic COVID-19, and we will look back and honor the lives of the more than 1.5 million people worldwide who lost their lives to this vicious pandemic.  2020 also marked 60 years of bilateral diplomatic… Read More

Two weeks ago, I was a guest speaker at the Annual Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ibadan Branch. I had the privilege of speaking on the important topic of Justice as the bedrock of an enduring democracy. Different people have different concepts of justice, depending always, on the circumstances and indeed the setting. But the universal idea of doing… Read More