Opinion

The EFCC Chairman Feeds His Fat Ego At Our Expense

The EFCC Chairman Feeds His Fat Ego At Our Expense

By SHEDDY OZOENE The expansive headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Jabi, Abuja, deserves to have a wing for circuses. The building is so imposing that the mere sight should frighten the crime-minded, but behind the façade lies a clay-footed anti-graft agency that enjoys playing to the gallery and displaying the absurd. Over the years, it has witnessed many spectacular acts of triviality but on the watch of Olukayode Olanipekun, unnecessary ego now drives its policies and operations. Nowhere has this absurdity played out more than in its lousy handling of the case involving Yahaya Bello,…
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Edo Polls And The Famous Product Vendor

Edo Polls And The Famous Product Vendor

AZU ISHIEKWENE By his admission, Senator Adams Oshiomhole is a lousy product vendor. In the real commercial world, his premises would have been closed and his products banned. But in politics, crime multiples grace. Oshiomhole dragged Godwin Obaseki into the governorship race in 2016 when the odds were against him. Obaseki’s daytime job was minding his business at Afrinvest, a financial services company he founded. But he soon landed a side hustle as chairman of the Edo State Economic and Strategy Team in Osadebey House, Benin. When Oshiomhole wanted to hand over the baton in 2016, after two terms as…
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Edo Election: Monday Okpebholo Copies From The Tinubu Playbook

Edo Election: Monday Okpebholo Copies From The Tinubu Playbook

By SHEDDY OZOENE  Monday Okpebholo, the 54-year old governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State has been in the news since the past 10 days. He had veered off from the pleasing words of the average Nigerian politician by promising the people ‘insecurity’ if elected governor. The video recording of his campaign rally at Ovia North LGA where he goofed while addressing the crowd, has been trending across Edo State and beyond. It has also fired up concerns among people of the state about his suitability for the job, notably Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party…
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FRABEN AGWU, HOW NOT TO BE HONOURABLE

FRABEN AGWU, HOW NOT TO BE HONOURABLE

Sammie Echi Agbo I read an open letter by Hon Fraben Agwu, JP, to the chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Enugu South LGA, Hon. Caleb Ani. Agwu, in the letter, cynically congratulated Hon Ani on his emergence as the candidate of our great party. He described his emergence as ‘unmerited’. He didn’t stop there, he tagged His Excellency Jim Nwobodo as being in a state of ‘incommunicado’, alongside Agwu’s other unconscionable expressions. Joining issues with Agwu is, to say the least, make him relevant in the political space where he deservedly had gone into oblivion. For…
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Ahmed Bako’s Intellectual Masturbation As Inaugural Lecture

Ahmed Bako’s Intellectual Masturbation As Inaugural Lecture

Ndigbo have contributed immensely to the economic development of Kano. And they have worked hard for their money. Just as it is the case in Lagos, no one has accused them of being land grabbers. And no one can accuse them of not adding value to wherever they live. To accuse them, therefore, of taking over enterprises as well as landed properties which would have otherwise been under the control of indigenes, is preposterous. It does not make sense. By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI What caught my attention in the 50th inaugural lecture flyer of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto was the…
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Nwobodo’s Legacies That Shaped Education Of Ndigbo

Nwobodo’s Legacies That Shaped Education Of Ndigbo

By Sammie Echi Agbo A hero makes the difference no matter the length of time he stays on the stage. He sees beyond the moment and is often dreaded by noisy mongers. A hero however is like a ferocious animal that needs no entourage. This is a story of how Senator Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, former governor of old Anambra State; former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and former minister of sports, laid the foundation of university of technology education in Igbo land when he was the governor of the old Anambra State. Chief Nwobodo, popularly called Jim, held…
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Tinubu: Overfed Father of Starving Children

Tinubu: Overfed Father of Starving Children

By FAROOQ A. KPEROGI The unfailingly abiding emotional investment I have in the wellbeing of common people springs forth from my experiential and mediated identification with the twinge of hunger and misery that poverty breeds. As people who read my columns know, my father, who died on December 31, 2016, was an Arabic/Islamic Studies teacher at a government-owned primary school for almost four decades. His salary was modest and often not guaranteed both during military regimes and civilian administrations. So, my siblings and I grew up in relative deprivation. But there were choices he made as a father that earned…
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Oshiomhole And Politics Of Debate

Oshiomhole And Politics Of Debate

By People&Politics By Erasmus Ikhide “To avoid giving an Edo gubernatorial ticket to an emergency Esan man, the election debate must be conducted in Esan dialect by eminent Esan men in Esan land.” ~ Sen. Adams Oshiomhole. I should have titled this piece “Adams Oshiomhole’s Double Standard on Language in Politics” for his banal revisionism as a man of duality and a double-faced character “who engages his mouth before engaging his brain.” Apologies to Patriot Chief John Odigie Oyegun. Oshiomhole’s major undoing is that either he has his memories to forget or he chooses to play on the people’s intelligence…
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Joe Ajaero: Dangers Of Being NLC President In A Tinubu Presidency

Joe Ajaero: Dangers Of Being NLC President In A Tinubu Presidency

By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI Five days after Comrade Joe Ajaero, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made history as the first NLC President to be elected unopposed at the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja, on February 8, 2023, I sat down with him in Lagos for an exclusive interview. Still basking in the euphoria of his victory, he was hopeful and bullish as he discussed the labour movement, what Nigerians should expect of his presidency and the impending 2023 elections. He was analytical and measured.…
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ANAMBRA: Very Keen On The September 28 Local Government Elections

ANAMBRA: Very Keen On The September 28 Local Government Elections

By CHUKA NNABUIFE FOR whatever reason, some goons are raising dust about Anambra State's keenness to hold local government (LG) elections. When the state proved how dubiously fallacious such communications are by setting the ball rolling ahead the September 28, 2024 LG elections in Anambra, the adversary switched to other complaints. The truth is that Gov. Chukwuma Charles Soludo and the entire Anambra State government along with the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) deserve thumbs up for the way plans for the polls is going so far. They have demonstrated clear understanding of what is on board. Even the…
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