Politics

By TUNDE OLUSUNLE When Hyacinth Iornem Alia, a priest of the Catholic church declared his intention to contest for the 2023 governorship in Benue State, his interest resonated with the people of the state. Back in 1991 under the eternally endless "Third Republic" transition programme of the General Ibrahim Babangida administration, an older priest of the same denomination, Moses Orshio Adasu, contested the governorship of the same state. Adasu ran on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, (SDP) one of the two political parties established by the Babangida regime at the time, won the election and was inaugurated on…

By SHEDDY OZOENE "Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” – Walter Cronkite For the second time since his inauguration last year, President Bola Tinubu has made a show of the Democracy Day, and using it as a reminder to the public of his democratic credentials as an activist, protester and a man who deployed the media in setting the nation's political agenda. The last one was even more so, as he virtually raised the dead heroes of Nigeria's Democracy, with an uncommon outpour of encomium. It all started 31 years ago, when the…

By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI  Asked last December to comment on Bola Tinubu’s performance as President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces since May 29, 2023, Prof Wole Soyinka, first black man to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and one of the most fervent cheerleaders of the Tinubu presidency, said he will only do so on the administration’s first anniversary. “Well, you know, something you may have noticed about me is that most heads of state, when they take office, I always leave them alone for about the first year… because they need time. I know when they come in, they…

By SHEDDY OZOENE House number 43, Idi Maska Road in Funtua, Katsina State, was just like any other building in the busy neighbourhood adjourning the Funtua Central Motor Park, save for the unending stream of visitors that trooped in and out of it. Some of the callers were friends of its famous occupant while others were members of the Social Democratic Party, (SPD). The building, a one-storey affair, green in colour, was the residence of the legendary Hausa  folk musician, poet and politician, Alhaji Mamman Shata who was at the time, chairman of the SDP in Funtua Local Government Area.…

In Kano, Plateau and Zamfara, the Supreme Court and President Bola Tinubu simply dodged a bullet on Friday, January 12. The judgements revalidating the mandates of Abba Kabir Yusuf, Caleb Muftwang and Lawal Dauda, who were earlier sacked by the Court of Appeal, were not altruistic. Enlightened self-interest informed both the apex court and the presidency – Siamese twins – that the cost of judicial malfeasance in those three states will be colossal. They were, therefore, forced to back down from their sinister plot. They don’t deserve the praises heaped on them by impressionistic Nigerians. By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI  Since the…

By SHEDDY OZOENE The news that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, had ordered the transfer of N585.2 million into the private bank account of a civil servant, hit the nation like a thunderbolt. It was enough to rouse Nigerians from the sleepy start to a new year and it quickly rose to a buzz when a cascade of other official indiscretions from the ministry came to the fore. Few days before this, the Minister had suspended a senior staff in the ministry for financial impropriety. Betta Edu A leaked memo showed that the minister…

By STEVE OSUJI THE BEAUTIFUL THIEVES:Should we make a law urgently that our beautiful women should never be allowed near the national till? Has anyone else noticed the seeming emerging trend of our women public officials outdoing the men in making a mess of our national treasury? The womenfolk seem to take no prisoners when they have opportunity to attack and they show exceptional impunity and the iron balls of hardened pyrates. In May 2014, this column (then appearing in The Nation newspaper), had described Diezani Alison-Madueke as “the beautiful thief”). Diezani was minister in charge of Petroleum under President…

BY AZU ISHIEKWENE In the last one and a half decades, Rabiu Kwankwaso has been the most charismatic politician out of Kano after the passing of Abubakar Rimi. Kwankwaso is not just charismatic; he is consequential, with a cult-like following that responds twice, even when he calls once. He is facing yet another defining moment in his political career. The outcome of the ruling of the supreme court in the case between the Kano state Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and his rival, Nasiru Gawuna, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), could well determine…