People&Politics

1196 Posts
BUHARI: The Making Of A Tragic Hero

BUHARI: The Making Of A Tragic Hero

BY ABRAHAM OGBODO Finally, President Mohammadu Buhari died on July 13, 2025. He wasn’t quite the coward alluded to by William Shakespeare in Julius Caeser. But he had died many times before his real death last Sunday. In the build-up to the 2015 presidential election, the state of his health was about the only campaign issue in the opposing camp. Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, then a pretentious promoter of President Goodluck Jonathan, had expressed deep worries. He said his own mother who was of the same age as Buhari, was suffering various forms of age-induced incapacitation and that Buhari, as…
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Musings on Muhammadu Buhari

Musings on Muhammadu Buhari

By Azu Ishiekwene I met him several times after he became Nigeria’s president in 2015, but the meetings did not change my impression of him as an enigma. Yet, as history peels back layer after layer of Muhammadu Buhari’s place, we may discover the essence of his beguiling simplicity. Tight-lipped and taciturn, a soldier in bearing and character, his life was marked by complex dimensions that shaped his political and personal trajectory. Escape routeBorn on December 17, 1942, in Daura, northwest Nigeria, in a region now fraught with banditry and violent crimes, Buhari began his military career by joining the Nigerian…
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Courts Jail Four Persons For Internet Fraud

Courts Jail Four Persons For Internet Fraud

Justices Mahmud Abdulgafar and Sulaiman Akanbi of the Kwara State High Courts on Monday, July 14, 2025 convicted and sentenced Olaitan Abdulwahab Damilare, Maruf Quadri Kolawole, Habeeb Abiodun Jimoh, and Mubarak Moruf to jail for fraud. They were prosecuted by Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on separate charges that border on cheating, impersonation and obtaining under false pretences. While Damilare, Kolawole, and Jimoh were prosecuted before Justice Abdulgafar, Moruf was prosecuted before Justice Sulaiman Akanbi. The charge against Damilare reads: “That you, Olaitan Abdulwahab Damilare (a.k.a Fav), sometime in January, 2024 or thereabout at Ilorin, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, dishonestly induced one Michael, a white man to send you…
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Alleged N6.9bn Fraud:  EFCC To Appeal  Fayose’s Acquittal

Alleged N6.9bn Fraud:  EFCC To Appeal  Fayose’s Acquittal

Sequel to the judgment of Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos  on Wednesday,  July 16, 2025,  acquitting and discharging a former Governor of Ekiti State,  Mr. Ayo Fayose from an alleged money laundering case preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,  the Commission says it is already studying the ruling with a view to appealing it. The former governor was re-arraigned  on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, alongside  Spotless Investment Limited on an 11-count charge bordering on money laundering and stealing to the tune of N6.9bn ( Six Billion Nine Hundred Naira).…
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Alleged $6b Mambilla Project Fraud: Court Admits More Evidence Against Ex-Minister, Olu Agunloye

Alleged $6b Mambilla Project Fraud: Court Admits More Evidence Against Ex-Minister, Olu Agunloye

Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal High Court, sitting in Apo, Abuja, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, admitted additional evidence from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against a former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye. Agunloye is facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on seven-count charges, bordering on official corruption and fraudulent award of Mambilla Power Project contract to the tune of $6billion (Six Billion US Dollars). The additional evidence are an investigation report of the Mambila HydroElectric Power Project, the defendant awarded to Sunrise Power &Transmission Company Limited and a warrant of arrest on Jide Sotinri. They were marked “Exhibit…
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Buhari Was Neither A Good Man Nor A Good President

Buhari Was Neither A Good Man Nor A Good President

BY DOMINIC KIDZU The Nigerian political and busines elite are insuferably pretentious and miserably hypocritical to the dead, in the way they pay them generous epithets that tell little of the story of their lives, in retrospect. Unfortunately, one of my overarching bankruptcies is that I am unable to put on a bold face to these ungainly platitudes; base fawnings, false affectation and what some might tragically call crocodile tears. I thank the Almighty that history is written with the ink of cold, hard, immutable facts, not sentiment, or the tongue-tied monologue of the usually lice- infested memory of politicians…
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You’re Impressed With Enugu Air? Well, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’

You’re Impressed With Enugu Air? Well, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’

By SHEDDY OZOENE Some colloquial statements find a way to creep into everyday use. The phrase, ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’ is one of those; it became a popular idiom in everyday usage largely due to its repeated use in popular music, entertainment and lately politics, where it gained traction for expressing the idea that something bigger, more surprising, or more impressive is still to come. In classical terms, it is a double negative, which we are taught is positive, but it has been understood for what it is. The Canadian Rock band, BTO, helped popularize it in the early…
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The Rotten Apples At Louis Edet House

The Rotten Apples At Louis Edet House

FESTUS ADEDAYO Sometime in the early 2000s, at the cusp of Tafa Balogun’s glory as the Inspector General of Police, an oil magnate from a Southwest riverine area was arrested. He was travelling into the state capital from his riverine part of the country. It was at nocturne. The oil magnate, who moved like an Oba, was in a convoy of cars. Inside the car was a falange of private security persons. They were armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons. It was obvious that this Oba-like man was into oil bunkering as well. At a checkpoint, the police stopped…
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(OPINION) COALITION BEWARE : Tinubu Is Not Jonathan

(OPINION) COALITION BEWARE : Tinubu Is Not Jonathan

BY ABRAHAM OGBODO . The one that is already in and seated is called APC. The one that is outside and itching to be admitted to unseat the one that is seated is called ADC. The difference is in the displacement and replacement of letters P and D. On the surface, this distinction lacks the firmness to affect a clear choice. This means that either of the entities can go or stay, and nothing significant will be lost in content. It is the same as saying that if, per adventure, ADC replaces APC in 2027, it will look like replacing…
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Arsenal Agree Deal To Sign Chelsea Winger, Noni Madueke

Arsenal Agree Deal To Sign Chelsea Winger, Noni Madueke

Arsenal have reportedly struck a deal worth over £50 million ($67.8m) to sign Chelsea winger Noni Madueke, with the England international set to sign a five-year contract at the Emirates. The 23-year-old former Tottenham academy graduate is expected to provide cover and competition for Bukayo Saka on the right flank in Mikel Arteta's setup for the upcoming season. Arsenal have reached a full agreement with Chelsea to sign Madueke for a fee of around £52 million, including add-ons, as per transfer guru Fabrizio Romano. The winger agreed on personal terms with the Gunners earlier this week and is set to undergo…
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