Opinion

NEWS ANALYSIS By TONY ONYIMA, Ph.D. The recent closure of Badeggi Radio in Niger State by Governor Mohammed Umar Bago has reignited a fundamental national conversation around press freedom and the limits of executive power in a democratic state. The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has condemned the governor’s action in unequivocal terms, describing it as “a blatant attack on press freedom and democracy.” Beyond the headlines, however, the incident reveals a more profound unease with how public office holders relate to independent media, and it raises urgent questions about the protection of constitutional rights under Nigeria’s democratic dispensation. At…

FUNKE EGBEMODE I was scrolling through Facebook and I stumbled on this yet-to-be-verified ‘data’. Elumelu’s mom is 97 years. Otedola’s mom is 93 years. Jonathan’s mom is 88 years. Dangote’s mom is 90 years. Where are their fathers? Long gone in most cases. Did you notice the unsaid and unwritten insinuation that the women are somehow at fault and should be found guilty of ‘long life’? But I won’t let the insinuation distract me, after all, my father has celebrated his 90th birthday and my mother died five years ago. There are men who are also 95 whose wives died…

INTIMATE AFFAIRS with FUNKE EGBEMODE For a woman, sex is not just physical. It is much deeper. Her orgasm is not just about reaching the peak of pleasure. It is about peaking happily and happily peaking. And for her to be roused and aroused, the arouser must be more than physically fit. He must be to her more than a warm and solid body. It is good for a man to be loaded downstairs but it is even better and more effective for him to be the man in whom she is truly pleased. That is why each time I…

BY ABRAHAM OGBODO It is like no lesson was learnt. I had expected that after the demise of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the reviews that followed, chronicling the hollowness of a life without impact, and how his departure would not leave behind sweet memories, subsisting political actors would be wise. This is not the case. In Psychology, there is something called Constitutional Theory of Personality, or simply, Constitutional Psychology. It seeks to project the personality from the physique. It says, in characterisation and social ranking, there is a correlation between what is seen and what is hidden. Almost like…

By AZU ISHIEKWENE Peter Obi has the best chance against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 of all opposition candidates. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may have received a slightly higher percentage of the votes (6.9 million or 29.1 percent) in the last presidential election; still, that was poor for Atiku, a sixth-timer in the presidential race. Obi had less than one year to prepare after his former party, the PDP, shafted him, followed by the bitter struggle for control between Atiku and the former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, which left the party in…

By Kehinde Olaosebikan At the annual Pan-African Business and Development Awards held in June, the Nigerian Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun described the outgoing President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Professor Benedict Okechukwu (Okey) Oramah, as “a true son of the soil” whose leadership had fundamentally reshaped trade and development across Africa. Those words capture accurately and succinctly the lifework of Okey Oramah, who turns 64 on Thursday, 24 July. Only recently, the President of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR conferred on Oramah the National honour…

By FUNKE EGBEMODE She was only 18 years old when she got married in 1989 to her husband who was already a national public figure. Indeed, her husband was already a former Head of State when they became husband and wife. And no, she did not marry him for money. Her grandfather, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, was Nigeria’s first Minister of Defence. Aisha Halilu Buhari, born in 1971, married in 1989, widowed in 2025, is the one my heart goes to today. May the soul of her husband, our former president, Muhammadu Buhari, rest in peace. Everybody is talking about the…

By Adeyẹmí Johnson Ademọwọ The death of the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, was always bound to be historic. But not many expected the seeming negative storm it stirred in the soul of Yoruba culture. From the undercurrents of public reactions, one thing is clear: we are fast losing our grip on what it truly means to be Yoruba and more urgently, what it means to sit on the sacred stool of Obaship. It is unfortunate and, indeed, very disturbing that this moment has ignited a painful question: Are the Ijebu now to be seen as people who…