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By Femi Adesina The Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari last week. Two names were very prominent in the assemblage: Margery Chuba Okadigbo, the Chairman, and Constance Harry Marshall. The presence of the personalities gives more than an inkling into the character of our President. It confirms ...
By Dakuku Peterside Globally, citizens of countries with democratic profiles are beginning to question the efficacy of democracy—especially democracy’s capacity to deliver the development agenda. A survey conducted by Pew Research shows that across 34 countries, a median of 52 per cent of those interviewed is dissatisfied with democracy. The dissatisfaction cuts across citizens of ...
By Dakuku Peterside . Containing the spread and impact of COVID-19 is a herculean task for Africa and African governments. It is even more challenging when western countries and their allies deliberately conspire to allow politics and economic nationalism instead of science to define global response to a virus that we know little about. Its ...
By FEMI ADESINA Let’s go down memory lane. In May, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari had led the Nigerian delegation to London to attend the global anti-corruption summit being hosted by the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron. We arrived London to the storm of reactions accompanying comments Cameron had made in a private conversation with ...
By Dakuku Peterside Though a Christian celebration, Christmas has turned into a cosmopolitan, cultural, and social celebration marked and enjoyed worldwide by different religious adherents. In Nigeria, a religiously diverse nation, many homes, Muslims, Christians, and traditional religion practitioners, celebrate the spirit of friendship and comradery among different people, enjoy harmless fun, exchange gifts, and ...
By Femi Adesina You have probably seen something on social media, which I consider a parody of lie merchants against our country. We will talk about it in a minute. But let me take an early digression to recall the story of a teacher we didn’t particularly like when we were in secondary school. The ...
By FEMI ADESINA What’s the deal for youths in the country, particularly from the Muhammadu Buhari administration? That is a question that often comes from different quarters. Well, the deal for the largest demographic composition, representing about 65% of our population, has been encapsulated under the acronym DEEL. And it’s a big deal, standing for ...
By Dakuku Peterside At face value, the Anambra election 2021 is over, but the lessons have far broader implications that will endure. Beyond these lessons, of what is considered the most consequential election in 2021, is the management of the people’s expectations and the governor-elect’s ability to fix the jigsaw puzzle of the many contradictions ...
By FEMI ADESINA As you read this piece, President Muhammadu Buhari and his team are in the French capital, attending the Paris Peace Forum, a gathering of about 30 Presidents and head of governments from around the world. The Nigerian leader is among the few that were asked to deliver a speech. On Wednesday afternoon, ...
By Dakuku Peterside Elementary leadership lesson highlights that today’s decisions shape tomorrow’s future. It is only those meant for the destruction that will not pay heed to this all-time truth. This aphorism aptly captures the mood of the country as the world gathered recently in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss climate change and the future - ...
By Dakuku Peterside Nigerians are facing hydra-headed challenges on all fronts: debilitating insecurity, extreme poverty, hyperinflation, high cost of food and essential consumables, diminishing trust in government and its institutions at all levels, and worse, there is no clarity on the way forward. Everyday quality of existence for the average Nigerian is depreciating, and people are ...
By Dakuku Peterside Exposing secrets in the public interest is gradually gaining public acceptance and appreciation. It is also a testament to how technology has further reduced the world to a global village. The men and women who do such exposé are “whistle blowers,” “information insurgents” and, in a more civil language “investigative journalists.” The ...
By FEMI ADESINA Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is an honest man. Whatever he tells you, please take it serious. You can even take it to the bank, as it’s a cheque that will never bounce. Last weekend in London, while speaking with top officials of the Nigerian High Commission, VP Osinbajo said of President Muhammadu ...
By Femi Adesina Series of reactions have typically attended the October 1 broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari to mark the 61st anniversary of our Independence Day. These include the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. That’s democracy in action, with its propensity and predilections for freedom of speech. My motive in this piece is ...
Sixty-one years ago, there were celebrations across the length and breadth of Nigeria. In every hue and corner of this developing nation, people were brimming with happiness at the prospect of this new nation – a nation born with heavy birth pangs and the struggles of leaders of the time to give freedom to their ...
By FEMI ADESINA Nigeria is 61 years old as an Independent country. And so what? What’s the big deal about it? That is what some people will say, arguing that all we have seen is flag independence, and no true emancipation for the citizens. There’s a big deal about every landmark or milestone we reach ...
By Rotimi Makinde It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. No one has ever become somebody without somebody. That is the principle of life. In one of the popular quote of late Nelson Mandala he stated this. “What counts in life is not the mere fact ...
By FEMI ADESINA Not a small ruckus has been caused by the defection of former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK), from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week. An icing on the cake, or the salt added to injury (depending on which side you are), was his ...
By Dakuku Peterside The problem with this call has been the connotations it carries. Agitation for “true” federalism or restructuring has refused to be jettisoned out of our political lexica, like poverty and corruption. The voices for a new form of federalism that will give more powers to the constituent parts of the federation and ...
By FEMI ADESINA Many were the prayers and goodwill messages that sped our feet to Owerri, capital of Imo State, the Eastern Heartland, on September 9, 2021. Why were the people so effusive in prayers? We were considered as going into unsafe territory, where anything could happen, as President Muhammadu Buhari and his team visited ...
By Dakuku Peterside . Symbolic gestures are particularly evident in Africa. Ndigbo or south easterners, more than any other group, attach importance to symbolic gestures. It is ingrained in their culture. However, for once, Igbos are divided over the significance and symbolisms of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit last week to the Eastern heartland. The visit ...
By Femi Adesina For those who believe in the ineluctable victory of good over evil, no matter how long it takes, this has been an inspiring week. From the forests of a thousand daemons in Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger States, among others, bandits, criminals, evildoers are taking a pounding. In their scores, scores upon scores, they ...
By FEMI ADESINA The news came like a thundering typhoon last week. For the first time in its 44 years history, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had made a profit. Net profit after tax stood at N287 billion in Year 2020, sequel to the completion of the statutory Annual Audit exercise. What year? 2020. ...
By Dakuku Peterside . Omoni Oboli’s “Wives on Strike” is a blockbuster Nollywood movie where four semi-illiterate market women eagerly protest a child marriage anathema. Amina’s dad has compelled her to marry an older man against her will. Mama Amina opposes this marriage, but her hands are tied by culture, tradition, and religion. She convinced ...
By FEMI ADESINA It is both sad and disheartening to observe the construct that some people try to give certain developments in the country. And that came out in bold relief in this week’s attack on the officers’ quarters of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), in which two people were killed, and one abducted. The ...
