Opinion

By Sylvia Kodilichukwu United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed has concluded a two-day official visit to Nigeria. She had a series of high-level meetings, including with President Bola Tinubu; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda; senior government officials; President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Omar Alieu Touray; as well as the UN Country Team led by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mohamed Malick Fall. The Deputy Secretary-General, accompanied by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative…

By SHEDDY OZOENE I first met Prince Billy Gillis-Harry in September last year. Both of us had taken the United Nigeria morning flight from Abuja to Port Harcourt, from where I would proceed by road to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for the quarterly Standing Committee meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. While we waited for our luggage on arrival in Port Harcourt, we exchanged pleasantries and discussed the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, a name I got to know for the first time that day. The moment he learnt I was travelling through PH, he started playing…

The book I am currently working on looks at how politicians underdeveloped Africa. It is to put in perspective Walter Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ and not to question the merits of his thesis. Divisive plays on emotion constitute one way the politicians keep us poor. Whether they are conscious of it or not is another matter. As a cockroach baited from both sides through many seasons of angst, I can feel the looming danger. By PAT UTOMI I read with much appreciation and delight Festus Adedayo’s column on Abati and Davido as cockroaches. I do not know how they…

By SHEDDY OZOENE Earlier in the month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, obtained a ruling on a final forfeiture of an estate in Abuja containing 753 units of duplexes. The ruling of Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, on Monday, effectively transfers the estate measuring 150,500 square metres on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, to the federal government. It is easily the single largest asset recovery by the agency since its inception in 2003, a landmark and cheery news coming from an organization that has for some time faltered on its mandate. Beyond the celebration of that landmark,…

By TUNDE OLUSUNLE Just days after the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970, disaster struck in the home of Wikina-Emmah in Kono at the heart of Ogoniland in Rivers State. Ebenezer Saro-Wikina, eldest son of Wikina-Emmah, suddenly passed. The Ogoni were among the nationalities affected by the civil war. Multitudes from the ethnic group previously sought refuge in the area delineated as Biafra by the secessionists. They were glad to return to their ancestral homes at the end of hostilities. Ebenezer Saro-Wikina went through the stress and drudgery of "crossing the Red Sea," literally. He got back…

By SHEDDY OZOENE Since he assumed office as Nigeria’s Minister of the Interior on August 21, 2023, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has been promoted as a whizkid and a strategic planner who would introduce innovations in the ministry. At just 42, he ranks among the youngest ministers and one of the hot-heads that would stand out within the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Fittingly, the ministry of the Interior in which he supervises five key parastatals – among them the Security and Civil Defence Corps; the Nigerian Correctional Services; the Immigration Service and the Federal Fire Services - is one of the…

By STEVE OSUJI "If an African child is assured of a pint of milk in the classroom, a good sandwich or one egg daily, there will be no fear of learning."-- President Bola Tinubu in France Who writes the president’s speeches? Who manages his thoughts and actions? Do we have a strategy team in the presidency? How do we prepare for huge events like the current state visit to France? EXPRESSO asks these and so many other questions over Tinubu's current visit to France. It's obvious that the current presidency is puny in terms of knowledge stock, experience and mental…

Dismantling Nigeria’s criminal political substructure: This criminal substructure, the foundation upon which the voodoo political superstructure is erected, is the reason why rather than making progress, every new administration inflicts much more horrendous misery on the populace. No progress can be made in the circumstance unless this fatuous estate of criminality is dismantled by taking politics out of the hands of the quislings who are bingeing on our collective patrimony and daring us to do our worst. It is a challenge we must take frontally, standing on our feet or suffer the ignominy of perpetual humiliation on our knees. By…

EXPRESSO_Intervention》》By STEVE OSUJI The bully in the house: Dr. Reuben Abati is a public intellectual of no mean repute. A brilliant mind, a well-read fellow, a columnist, editorialist and lately, a news talk show host on Arise Television. For full disclosure, we were both denizens of the famous Rutam House, home to The Guardian newspapers stable.In the early 1990s, he was on the editorial board while yours truly was Assistant Editor with the weekly journal, The African Guardian. This was over 30 years ago. Reuben is in the news again. Yes, he trended not quite long ago when he openly…