Do You Know Who I Am?
By Reuben Abati The biggest affliction that Nigerians suffer from, individually and collectively, is encapsulated in the common, familiar saying: “Do you know who I am?” It is a statement,…
Category: Opinion
Nigeria: It’s Time to Dispose of Decrepit, Bankrupt Refineries
By Marcel Okeke “Port-Harcourt Refinery Not for Sale”: This headline of a story published recently in a number of online and offline media, shocked the vast majority of Nigerians to…
Lagos Is Playing with Fire — And Tinubu Must Put It Out
By Babafemi Ojudu A troubling trend is unfolding in Lagos State. In the aftermath of the recent local government elections, some newly elected officials have embarked on a reckless spree…
Looking Back: Four developments that helped us enjoy our trip to Canada
We’re back in Nyon after spending two weeks in Canada. We greatly enjoyed our stay there—the wedding as well as the exciting and varied places we visited in Toronto, Kingston,…
Why We Should Stop Renaming Well-Established Universities
By Farooq A. Kperogi In Nigeria, there’s a disturbingly haunting temporariness in the appellative identity of every university that derives its name from its location. If the current trend holds,…
Rebased Economy: Nigeria’s Gains, Losses and Fresh Challenges
By Marcel Okeke The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has, through the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), rebased the economy after over a decade when the last rebasing exercise was…
Akwa Ibom’s 76 Oil Wells: The distortion in Linus Obogo’s Abiku myth
By AmanamHillary Umo-Udofia Linus Obogo’s article, “Cross River’s 76 Oil Wells and the ‘Abiku’ Paradox,” is undeniably eloquent and steeped in mythic imagery. But when stripped of metaphor and reduced…
Super Falcons, federal character and competence
By ETIM ETIM Nigerians across the country have been celebrating the dramatic victory of the Super Falcons in Morocco on Sunday. For their consistent victories in 10 of the 14…
Super Falcons: Queens Of Africa
by Reuben Abati Nigeria’s senior female soccer team, the Super Falcons are the Queens of Africa given their superlative, dominant and creative performance, their resilience, and agility at the just…
The Futility of Revisiting a Supreme Court Judgment Thirteen Years Later
By Okoi Obono-Obla In recent times, some concerned individuals from Cross River State have been urging the State Government to return to the Supreme Court of Nigeria and file a…
Ten Days in Japan
By Farooq A. Kperogi I was in Japan for a 10-day vacation (workation for my wife), which gave us an opportunity to see our first daughter, a final-year engineering student…
76 oil wells: time for Cross River to move on
By ETIM ETIM It’s been 26 years since the legal battle over the ownership of some 76 offshore oils wells arose between Cross River and Akwa Ibom; and despite the…
Tight Monetary Policy: A Choke on Nigerian Economy?
By Marcel Okeke To the utter disappointment and shock of most businesses, analysts and ardent observers of the Nigerian economy, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of…
My Dream Party: A Blueprint for People-Centered Politics
By Babafemi Ojudu, CON In recent days, I have found myself reflecting deeply on the nature and evolution of political parties in Nigeria. It is that familiar season again—the time…
Zoning: The Albatross ADC is Hanging
By Ike Abonyi ” _The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”_ – Martin Luther King Jr. An English literary icon, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who…
Who will inherit Buhari’s 12 million votes?
By ETIM ETIM With the death of President Muhammadu Buhari early July, a huge leadership vacuum has opened up in northern Nigeria and whoever steps into his shoes will influence…
Okpebholo, Obi and Irregular VIP Behaviour
By Iboro Otongaran Commentaries on Governor Monday Okpebholo’s remarks over Peter Obi’s visit to Edo State are dropping thick and fast, but much of the reactions traffics in insult at…
Olukoyede And The New EFCC
by Reuben Abati Last Friday, July 18, the incumbent Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede was in Lagos to hold a sensitization programme on Naira…
Celebrating Buhari’s Death Vs Forgiving Him
By Farooq A. Kperogi Two dominant narrative strands have emerged in Nigerian discursive spheres in the aftermath of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death: whether it offends decency to celebrate his…
On Buhari’s Death
By Farooq Kperogi It has been announced that former President Muhammadu Buhari passed away in London. Anyone familiar with my writings and commentary knows I vigorously disagreed with many of…
U.S.-Africa Summit: Whither Nigeria?
By Marcel Okeke For decades, Nigeria, the country that is home to the largest black population in the world, has proudly carried the epithet: ‘Giant of Africa.’ For this, it…
Trump, Musk and The Nigerian Gladiators
By Reuben Abati “Bros, looks like one accidented trailer has just passed between Trump and Elon Musk oh, and it gets messier by the day.” “What do you expect? It…
Threats of internal sabotage against Gov. Umo Eno
By ETIM ETIM There’s been a flurry of articles in recent times warning Gov. Umo Eno of certain elements who recently moved into APC with him, but have displayed signs…
The World Bank’s Alert on Rapid Growth of Poverty in Nigeria
By Marcel Okeke One of the cheerleader-organizations of Nigeria’s recent economic reforms—The World Bank—seems to have turned a turncoat, and raised a worrisome alarm on the rapid growth of extreme…
Nyesom Wike: His style, achievements and the fate of FCT workers
By ETIM ETIM President Tinubu is obviously impressed by the many infrastructural projects Nyesom Wike has built in the last 18 months as the 17th minister of the FCT. A…
APC And Abdullahi Ganduje’s Resignation
By Reuben Abati It is now confirmed that Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, 75, Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has resigned from his position as Chairman of the…
AI’s Threat to Journalism, Scholarship, and Self-Expression
By Farooq A. Kperogi On June 16, the final day of my three-week visit to Nigeria, I met with my dear friend Malam Ali M. Ali, Managing Director of the…
Seeing Nigeria from My American Daughter’s Eyes
By Farooq A. Kperogi Sometimes, it takes the unburdened and free-spirited perceptions of outsiders, particularly children, to appreciate taken-for-granted cultural peculiarities. This fact came to the fore for me after…
Nigerian Economy: A Breeding Ground for Ponzi Schemes?
It has become very easy to blame patrons of Ponzi schemes (fraudulent investment scams) for their greed and ignorance. But, despite the general awareness creation about the dangers of those…
PDP: the plot thickens
By ETIM ETIM Those who are still in doubt about the fate of the PDP and why some of its elected officials are decamping to other parties should read a…
Leaving the PDP: the choice before Akwa Ibom people
By Assam E. Assam, SAN In the evolving political landscape of Akwa Ibom State, recent developments have reignited debates about party loyalty, political identity, and the future of governance in…
Federal Ministry of Agriculture, prayers and sudden death
By ETIM ETIM The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security brought an untold embarrassment and shame on Nigerians last week through an internal memo which summoned its senior staff…
Huge Foreign Portfolio Investment into Nigeria: At What Costs?
By Marcel Okeke In what looks like a propaganda blitz, several online and hardcopy publications have in recent times been carrying a report that Nigeria’s economy attracted huge foreign portfolio…
What next shall we name after Tinubu?
By ETIM ETIM FCT Minister Nyesome Wike spent a whopping N39 billion to renovate the International Conference Centre in Abuja and renamed it Bola Tinubu International Conference Center in continuation…
Sin No More, Sanwoolu
By Reuben Abati Nigerians woke up to the delightful news, Monday morning, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, currently on Sallah vacation in Lagos, had decided, following entreaties from interested and…
A Covenant of Purpose: Governor Umo Eno’s Strategic Realignment and the National Imperative
By Aniekan Umanah It was a day when history and purpose converged, closing one chapter and opening another in bold, progressive print. On Friday, June 6, 2025, the Banquet Hall…
Leadership Lessons from AfDB’s Akinwumi Adesina
By FEMI ADESINA It is not the end. Not yet. But it was the beginning of the end. President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Nigeria’s Dr Akinwumi Adesina, was hosting…
Umo Eno’s defection: the excitement, anxiety and expectations
By ETIM ETIM The defection of Gov. Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State from PDP to APC on Friday was not a surprise, after all. I first got wind wind…
‘Nigeria First’: Brainwave or Economic Blueprint?
By Marcel Okeke Apart from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s amorphous ‘Renewed Hope’ mantra, it looks obvious that there has not been any discernible overarching economic blueprint by his administration. This…
Bill Gates Pledges Wealth to Addressing Challenges in Africa
The Founder of Microsoft Corporation, Mr. Bill Gates, has pledged to devote his wealth to addressing challenges in Africa for the next 20 years. Gates made this pledge on Monday…
Mid-term, Coastal Road And Other Stories
by Reuben Abati “Omo, how you dey?” “I dey my dey oh. What’s up?” “How you take see this Baba Tinubu’s mid-term score card”? “My problem is that President Tinubu…
Why the Anti-Tinubu Coalition Isn’t Coalescing
By Farooq A. Kperogi There is supposed to be a formidable coalition of powerful regional and national political forces working to upstage President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. But this…
The Umo Eno interview
By ETIM ETIM I was one of the seven journalists invited to interview Gov. Umo Eno in Uyo on May 29 as part of his midterm anniversary activities. It was…
Nigeria’s shock therapy: Why President Tinubu should press on
View From Abroad Nigeria’s shock therapy: Why President Tinubu should press on By FT Editorial Board For years, Nigeria has been not so much a sleeping giant as a comatose…
Good bye, Ngugi wa Thiongo’o
By Yusuf Bangura I’m saddened to learn about Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s death—one of the greats of African literature. The Nobel prize eluded him, but he shaped the minds of many…
Octopus Wike And The PDP
By Reuben Abati Octopuses are considered by biologists to be very crafty, clever, cephalopods, who have multiple brains and three hearts, and can easily manoeuvre their ways around even the…
No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines
May 8, 2025 Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way and Daniel Ziblatt How will Americans know when we have lost our democracy? Authoritarianism is harder to recognize than it used to be. Most…
Capital Flight as a Drag on Nigeria’s Economic Development
Marcel Okeke Without any fear of contradiction, stocks trading (activity) on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) in the first quarter 2025 resulted to a monumental capital flight…
Banks’ profits, charges and customers’ complaints
By ETIM ETIM Grumbling about banks’ profit is a favourite Nigerian pastime that gets louder and louder in the first quarter of the year when their financial performance for the…
Nigeria’s Export Boom and Economy Diversification Imperatives
By Marcel Okeke A recent report that Nigeria’s non-oil exports hit US$1.7 billion in the first quarter 2025, marking a significant increase of almost 25 per cent compared to the…