Opinion

Scene I It’s the zero hour. Nobody slept all night. Everything is set for the war. Commanders are busy, surreptitiously dispatching orders and supplies to the frontlines. The night before the war is the most crucial night. It’s the night…

The Presidency on Sunday descended heavily on the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, over the result of the Saturday governorship election in the state, describing him as “a high-powered nothing.” The Senior Special Assistant…

The mark of African political leadership has too often been characterised by the reneging on pledges of clean government and indulging in corruption. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Yet, regrettably, the political classes…

In the history of morally bankrupt governors in Nigeria, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose had set a standard that's hard to match. The drama of the absurd staged by Fayose feigning  broken neck and broken arm three days ago, evokes…

“Give me a man – one man, One mighty prophet of the Lord, Whose heart is touched by the heavens’ fire, And I will give peace on earth, Bought with a prayer and not a sword.” (George Liddel, quoted in J. Oswald Sander’s “Spiritual…

“Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here”, American president Donald Trump told the Financial Times in early April. That the most powerful man in the world sees his Twitter account as his most powerful communication tool speaks to how…

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has been  on the rooftop and won’t come down till long after Saturday. He has been screaming, for all the world to hear, that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) plans to rig this weekend’s…

On the basis of the re-appraisals made, the President said that it had become “necessary to re-kit and re-tool our arsenal to be able to affectively tackle corruption’s perilous…

There is no doubt that Nigerians love sports and it is no longer just about entertainment; it is also about making (and losing) money. A whole lot of money. The billion dollar sports betting industry is obviously growing astronomically…

You should have seen me shaking my head in self-pity, as if somebody had just mercilessly slapped me. I had just landed at the “little” Kotoka International Airport, Accra, Ghana, and needed to use the rest room. What I saw startled me.…

Fellow Nigerians, these are not the best of times for the Buhari strategists. Certainly, it can’t be; not with the way they’ve obviously been goading President Muhammadu Buhari on and encouraging him to fight on all fronts, and losing…

State of the nation: In the last two weeks, over 200 persons in Plateau state were reportedly killed by Fulani herdsmen, 45 villages were ransacked and sacked and those villages we are told have been taken over by Fulanis, and the…

Before you criticise this piece, please go back and read many of my predictions and advice to to Ndi Igbo before 2015 presidential election. From late 2013, I started pleading with Ndi Igbo to join and support the APC, even though PDP…

The postmatch words of Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio, criticising Neymar for his simulation and exaggeration, were clearly in part motivated by the bitterness of the 2-0 defeat to Brazil. One moment of Oscar-worthy hysterics aside,…

Yemi Osinbajo, Professor of Law, (SAN), is an accomplished professional.  Unlike many of our politicians,  he has a second address. In other words, outside of government, he can survive, and survive with panache. Before his current…

Quote me: the Plateau killings, in which over a hundred defenceless citizens lost their lives, will not be the last. I am not trying to be a prophet — much less a prophet of doom — but the reality of Nigeria is that things hardly…

The shameless plunderers, the looting colonies, the unconscionable thieves and the unrepentant criminals who stole everything in sight in Nigeria in 16years are now talking tough, telling us how they plan to return to power in 2019. We…

“My grandfather, Sheik Nurudeen Sa’ I’d, who was half Fulani and half Yoruba, got married to my grandmother.” My maternal grandfather was a great and powerful Muslim cleric and scholar by the name of Sheik Nurudeen Sa’ Id. He was…

Fellow Nigerians, nothing is more uppermost in the minds of Nigerians and friends of Nigeria than that of Nigeria’s general elections next year and, in particular, the Presidential race. I have had the honour of talking to a few…

On June 25, 2018 I woke up to yet another social media trend – a news story with the bold and quite salacious headline “How Safe Are Customer Deposits At FCMB?” had taken over the digital airwaves. Between the shares and likes and…

It is with the heaviest of hearts, the strongest anger and deepest feelings I pen this letter as images of the things I see have refused to leave my memory and all I hear from my radio are songs of sorrow so much so that I am tempted…

As the 2019 presidential polls in Nigeria draw nearer, speculations are going round on the chances of the aspirants. If there is, in the history of Nigeria, a president who has enjoyed massive support from world leaders, the president…

It is a strange world we inhabit when the struggles of Lionel Messi, a footballer who has brought so much joy to so many people, are greeted with glee by some and triumphalism by others. Why would seeing Messi brought low make you happy?…

In 2011, a brilliant, fine gentleman from the south-south was elected into the Nigerian senate. He was full of hopes and dreams. At a dinner with journalist friends, he outlined his vision and spoke enthusiastically about pursuing…