Opinion

“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…

Lagos (Nigeria) is a very interesting place to live and drive in. Driving on the streets in Lagos. Even in the highbrow areas where we would find people who can afford luxury cars, we cannot run away from traffic, security risks…

During the colonial era, the police force was set up to oppress and intimidate the Nigerian people, coerce and extort taxes from them and prevent them from challenging the ruthless exploitation of the human and natural resources of the…

There has been nothing in recent memory like the build-up to Nigeria’s first match at the on-going 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament in Russia. Football is Nigeria’s greatest unifier: when it is football, our compatriots drop all…

I have  been feeling very uneasy at the re-opened debate over the June 12, 1993 presidential election impasse after President Muhammadu Buhari decided to honour the presumed winner, Chief MKO Abiola, and his running mate, Ambassador…

Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president, has cried out that President Muhammadu Buhari plans to arrest him. I consider it the mother of all false alarms: Buhari lacks motivation for such an action. But according to Obasanjo’s June…

My hunch may be effete, and my intuition may be asthenic. The submission I make in this treatise is not a whammy whisper from God into my hearing ears. If what I think the concerned is thinking is off-mark, I beg for mercy. Former…

As politicians of all shades and stripes converged on Abuja on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of June 12, the declaration of that day as the new Democracy Day and the investiture of MKO Abiola with GCFR, the motive of President…

Prescient Nigerian observers who are watching what’s going on in Lagos State would rightly agree that hard work in the right direction delivers enduring fruits. Hard work doesn’t kill; it yields life that history acknowledges ultimately.…

Ambition is the grand enemy of tact. It is eternal adversary to all peace. Yes, Donald Duke understands this fact, in theory and from experience. Many have questioned his electability: to some, the only thing that former governor of…

The phrase, Sho mo age mi ni, is a Yoruba question meaning, “Do you know my age?” It was the proficient thespian, Bayo Salami, popularly known as Oga Bello, and his gifted son, Femi, aka Jelili, that brought the viral video clip, Sho mo…

For the record, I did not vote on June 12, 1993. Not that I did not want to vote, but the situation conspired with the circumstances to disenfranchise me: I was out of Lagos. If I was in town, though, I would have voted for Chief MKO…

Hmmmm, so Saraki is a robber? I am just looking o. He has been everything since he emerged the Senate President. I just pity the man. Everything has been thrown at him from drug dealer to money launderer and now an Offa robbery kingpin.…

There is absolutely no way Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu can be happy with how President Muhammadu Buhari is running the country right now. Nor can he be exhilarated with the way the APC is being run either. Yes, for Photo-Op, he can…

On assumption of Office in May 2015, the Akinwunmi Ambode-administration was confronted with a huge traffic situation that was further compounded by the activities of criminals taking advantage of the situation to rob commuters and…

From the judgement of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos which orders President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently instruct security and anti-corruption agencies to forward to him reports of their investigations into allegations of…

“Ogboju” is no ordinary term in Yoruba speak. It describes a false bravado by the daring in pursuit of often dubious end. It happens when the marauder is, for instance, audacious enough to turn around and blame the very crime on their…

Just days before President Buhari met with President Trump at the White House, history was made in Washington, DC, with the signing of a landmark infrastructure agreement between the Nigerian Government and a consortium of multinational…