Feature

Nigeria's bid to ensure safer water for the citizenry moved several rungs up with the election of Dr. Mohammed Ali Dan-Hassan as Chairman, Abuja chapter of Nigerian Association of Hydrogeologists. People&Politics notes that a hydrogeologist, who is a specialized earth scientist, impacts lives through mapping aquifers, locating water sources, managing contamination, and ensuring safe water supplies for human and environmental use. The paper further notes that access to safe water has been a major developmental hindrance in Nigeria. According to a health and safe water accountability site, nigeriahealthwatch, visited by the paper, only about 30% to 32% of Nigerians "have…

By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu ​A high-profile land dispute between the former Governor of old Anambra State, Chief (Senator) Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Energy FM, Dr. Basil Kenechukwu Ogbuanu, has escalated into a legal firestorm following the alleged demolition of property worth hundreds of millions of naira. ​At the heart of the crisis is a ₦5.8 billion claim brought by Dr. Ogbuanu against the elder statesman and his wife, Dr. Patricia Nwobodo. The Lagos-based businessman alleges that his investments at Patson Estate, Independence Layout, Enugu, were not only secured through a deceptive web of shell…

*Landlords Routinely Demand Millions *Short-Term Let, AirBnB Increasingly Preferred, Depriving Potential Tenants Of Accommodation *Many Employees Sleep In Offices After Work *Lagos's Loss, Ogun State's Gain Every weekday before dawn, Oluwatobi Ogundipe leaves his small flat in Sango Ota, an industrial town in Ogun state, for a four-hour commute to the glass towers of Lagos Island. Despite working in one of Nigeria’s growing technology sectors, the 32-year-old product manager cannot afford to live any closer to his office. “In 2023, I found a self-contained room on Lagos Island, close to my office, with its own toilet and kitchen, renting for…

By Felix Durumbah, Abuja Apparently struggling to sustain its leadership role as beacon for many African nations, Nigeria has, over time, often tried to live up to expectation, its clearly jutting warts notwithstanding. The country's endemic, self-inflicted wounds screaming for healing, Nigeria has trudged on relentlessly, even attracting the attention of other African nations that seek tutorials on how to keep up certain aspects of national life. To Doomsday prophets, this may not be good news, but the raw fact remains that Nigeria is not a total failure in all areas. Of course, this must have been the underlying reason…

*Their Ancestors Arrived Present-Day Iran As Slaves Under Babylonian Supreme Ruler Nebuchadnezzar, Others *Practice Of Judaism Under Islamic Iran On the evening of 6 April, Asef, 65, and other members of Tehran’s Jewish community braved the US-Israeli bombing campaign to celebrate an evening Passover service at the Rafi’ Nia synagogue in the centre of the Iranian capital. Inside the dim hall, lined with Persian carpets and mint green curtains, Torah verses were recited and prayers murmured under the breath. Asef, his shirt neatly tucked into his trousers and a kippah on his head, sat among the men, while the women…

*For Years, The Budget Hovered Below The 15% Abuja Declaration Target Agreed By AU; It Is One Of Lowest Per Capita On Health In Africa “Nigeria remains in a polycrisis: an economic/cost of living crisis, a security crisis, a human capital development crisis, a human development crisis. All four feed on and amplify each other.” These are the words of Senior Analyst at the Lagos office of Control Risks, a risk consultancy, Joachim MacEbong, according to the Guardian UK. In February, Nigerians were shocked when the Health Minister, Muhammad Ali Pate, lamented that of the N218b (£119.6m) budget allocated for…

Today, United States (US) and Israel launched a joint preemptive military operation against Iran, deploying a vast array of advanced air, naval and missile systems. Israel's Operation Roaring Lion and the US-led Operation Epic Fury struck Iranian military and nuclear-linked sites, triggering a sweeping Iranian retaliation,tagged Operation Promise-3, across the region. The joint operation marked a major escalation in US military involvement in Iran and came amid mounting tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme and internal unrest. Iran responded with missile and drone barrages toward Israel, followed by attacks on US military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, signalling a conflict…

By Cheta Nwanze The death from a snakebite of singer Ifunanya Nwangene in an Abuja hospital last Saturday, allegedly after a frantic and failed search for antivenom, sent a familiar shudder through Nigeria. It was a profoundly personal tragedy, yet it felt grimly systemic. Within days, it became part of a devastating triad of events framing a national crisis. A few weeks before, the country had grappled with the death of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s young son in a premium private hospital in Lagos, amid allegations of negligence. Just before that, there were the images of boxer Anthony Joshua, after…

Donald Trump went on a massive social media spree overnight that included posting on his Truth Social an election conspiracy video that ended with a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys. The racist depiction of the Obamas – the first Black President and First Lady in American history – appears at the end of a one-minute video perpetuating the false and disproven claims that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company in 2023 settled for $787.5m with Fox News in a landmark defamation lawsuit.…

In a last message to her friends, Ifunanya Nwangene wrote: “Please come.” The 26-year-old singer and former contestant on The Voice Nigeria had been bitten by a snake while asleep in her flat in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and was in hospital, anxiously awaiting treatment. Despite rushing to seek care, Nwangene died a few hours after being bitten, as her friend waited at a pharmacy to buy the antivenom she needed. As the news of her death on 31 January spread, it has sparked a fierce row over the ready availability of drugs needed to treat deadly snakebites in Nigeria’s hospitals.…