Nigeria is regaining her due respect in the comity of nations after some decades in international political antipodes. The reception for President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House by American President Barack Obama, with such an unusual grandeur, tells the grade Nigeria now occupies in world reckoning. America would not have extended the respect reserved…
Security at Bar of Public Opinion
Nigerian security services are at the bar of public opinion now after their scathing performances in the last 16 years of constitutional rule. How far did they acquit themselves individually at the court of public justice according to the law? To some of the services there no longer was rule of law because they became…
Like Greece, like Nigeria
Greeks spoke loud enough to tell the world that their land fathered Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They reminded the world that they are no feeding-bottle people to be guided by so-called supra-national bodies whose assistance benefits the banks and the trading class. They will take their fate in their hands and weather battles of want…
Let’s Gird Our Loins
Joseph Wayas beat Justice Atake with one vote to emerge as Senate president in 1979. Surprisingly, some Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN’s senators were rumoured to have voted for Wayas against their party’s directive. Gayus Bulama of former Gongola State, did not hide his option for Wayas. Atake was UPN. As it stood in the…
The Message in Omar al-Bashir’s Cross
The political controversy that trailed the presence of Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese president, at the recent African Union, AU, conference in South Africa is not going away any time soon. Half way through the four-day AU conference held in Johannesburg in June, al-Bashir surreptitiously flew out of South Africa to avoid being ensnared by the arrest…
Privatisation Is Sharp Practice
The phone rang at late noon and the caller was my colleague, the indefatigable nationalist, Prince Anthony Momoh. It was at an hour unexpected because Tony takes calls and rings at night. Without waiting for the usual collegial exchanges, he asked; “Where is Jabso?” Jabso is Chief Ajibade Fasina-Thomas, whose pen name in sports commentary…
Buhari, Pick Your Steps Gingerly
Nigerians now have problems with standard and taste. Salihu Ibrahim, former chief of army staff’s description of the Nigerian Army of his charge fits the present character of the average Nigerian of today. He had said then that his force was where, “anything goes”. Must it continue? One thinks that is why Muhammadu Buhari is…
New Broom to Sweep Impunity
Do the duties of state officials overlap their territorial jurisdiction? We have just seen one enacted by the chief judge of Bayelsa State in swearing in the elected governor of Rivers State by the order of the former attorney general of the federation, Mohammed Adoke. Henceforth, by that action, all the jurists in Nigeria have…
What’s The Hold up on Keshi?
The drama surrounding the long-running negotiations between the Nigeria Football Federation and Stephen Keshi, the coaching candidate for the Super Eagles, is unprecedented in the history of football-contract negotiations anywhere in the world. Since both parties indicated interest in working together again we have been regaled in the media with varying statements and positions by…
More Mentors Needed for Black Community
I can’t quite come to terms with a New York Times story this week by Binyamin Applebaum that establishes that the lot of African Americans has not improved under America’s first black president. The story in the NY Times’ Upshot Section about how black jobless rates remain high despite an economy on the rebound, informs…
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