Farce and incompetence in Bello’s Kogi
GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello, the so-called digital governor of Kogi State, spent the better part of one year and two successive panels screening the state’s workforce for ghost workers. After he brought the...
View ArticleEl-Zakzaky: federal subversion of the law
MORE than one year after he was detained without charge, and obviously more than 45 days after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered his release, the bruised and battered Shi’a leader, Ibraheem...
View ArticlePresident’s medical vacation
UNNERVED by unfounded speculations about President Buhari’s death during his medical vacation abroad, his aides back in Nigeria anxiously migrated from the honest admission of his trip being designed...
View ArticleBuhari, Magu and David Lawal versus Senate
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari reserves the right to nominate anyone for any post, and to stick with his nominees even when they are at first rejected by the Senate. In exercising this right, the president...
View ArticleWhen the North met
LAST Monday, when the 19 governors of the northern states met with their traditional rulers in Kaduna, few observers needed to guess what the agenda would be. The Boko Haram menace may be receding in...
View ArticleRivers State’s fishy helicopter business
IT was essentially a dispute between the present and past Rivers State governors over the importation and clearance of two helicopters specified as armoured plated. But no thanks to the Nigeria Customs...
View ArticleUproar in Southeast over Igbo presidential ambition
WITH the mass defection of some political juggernauts in the Southeast to the All Progressives Congress (APC), a defection partly shepherded by the Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, the question on...
View ArticleSecurity agencies and brutalisation of civil populace
TWO recent incidents remind Nigerians of the difficult and intractable relationship that exists between security agencies and the civil populace. The first was the February 2 invasion of the Federal...
View ArticleJustice Onnoghen’s belaboured nomination
THE federal government continues to give the impression that the four months delay in forwarding the name of Justice Walter Onnoghen to the Senate for confirmation as the next chief justice is a...
View ArticleSouthwest’s difficult DAWN
AT a well-attended meeting of Southwest governors hosted by the feisty and voluble Ekiti governor Ayo Fayose last Monday, the region’s governors reiterated their determination to join hands and ideas...
View ArticleGov Ortom’s undemocratic deadline
REACTING to the killing on February 11 of a soldier on peacekeeping duties in the restive Agatu area of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom gave the community where the incident happened 72 hours to...
View ArticleRumpus in the PDP
WITH the affirmation of Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno State, as chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the future of the former ruling party that dominated politics between 1999...
View ArticlePolitics, emotions and Southern Kaduna crisis
IF the Kaduna State and federal governments are to properly manage the crisis in Southern Kaduna, they will need uncommon wisdom in understanding the politics and emotions of the bloodletting between...
View ArticleThe president’s health
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s minders have gone to extraordinary lengths to hide his illness, or its severity, from the public. Nothing will dissuade them from their set goals. It was even difficult to...
View ArticleAkeredolu and leadership puzzle
AS far as speeches go, Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s inauguration address was long, tedious and uninspiring. Punctuated by so many references to God, complete with a few Bible quotations, it...
View ArticleOsinbajo, Onnoghen and appointment of justices
AFTER the Department of State Service (DSS) raided the residences of some top judges in Abuja, one of whom was a justice of the Supreme Court, it was clear that the judiciary was ripe for radical...
View ArticleBishop Kukah’s ‘constant commotions’
DESPITE coming under withering attacks over positions he sometimes takes on government and governance issues, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has the courage of his...
View ArticleBuhari’s selected calls and dramatic return
GIVEN the number of public functionaries and well-heeled individuals President Muhammadu Buhari called on phone before dramatically returning to Nigeria Friday morning, it was no longer in doubt he was...
View ArticleA curious birthday
BIRTHDAYS and burials present peculiar challenges to those saddled with the luckless responsibility of making the orations in honour of the celebrators. The lot fell on Audu Ogbeh last week to exhibit...
View ArticleSenate, Hameed Ali and bureaucratic laxity
COL Hameed Ali (retd.), Comptroller General (CG) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), is probably not the most suave public officer of your imagination, but he is always in the news, often noticeably...
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