There is a Yoruba saying that if you compare one child with another, you would beat the silly one to a pulp. After South Africa’s independence in 1994, two of its presidents have visited Nigeria – Nelson Mandela and Thambo Mbeki. When Jacob Zuma arrived in Abuja on Tuesday for his first state visit, he…
Continue Reading ...The House of Representatives is spoiling for a fight with the Federal Road Safety Commission and I’m trying hard to believe that, whatever former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have said about legislators, the fight this time is not about the bread basket. Last Thursday, member after honourable member led by Philip Shaibu from Edo State…
Continue Reading ...Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose who has made an impressive career from finding fault with Preisdent Muhammadu Buhari, however genuine or foolish, has been unusually quiet about something for which I thought he would have been justified to claim credit – the value of the naira. In December when the naira was still trading at…
Continue Reading ...The new acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff, had barely settled down to his new job when he promised President Muhammadu Buhari that he would not get a second term. Sheriff swore, by his long cap, that he would lead the PDP back to Aso Rock in 2019 and served notice…
Continue Reading ...Weeks before the 2016 budget woes became public, a source confided to me a story that sounded like fiction. The source said that shortly before President Muhammadu Buhari formally presented the budget, some politicians in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party approached the Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma. Buhari was racing against time…
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I don’t understand what the National Security and Civil Defence Corps is trying to say about the public shining of the shoes of Minister of Interior Abdulraham Dambazzau. It should have covered its head in shame. If the Corps really wanted to help the boss, it should have just kept quiet. Unfortunately, it issued a…
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According to an article in the Christmas edition of The Economist, 105 years ago when Africa had a population of about 100million, roughly nine percent was Christian. With a population of nearly one billion today, the continent’s Christian population has grown to 55 percent or 550million, the fastest in any region in the world. In…
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It’s tempting to deny Governor Seriake Dickson credit for winning a second term as Bayelsa State governor in Saturday’s governorship election, which had earlier been declared inconclusive. The story, in fact, is not that Dickson won the election; but that his rival, Timipre Sylva, lost. To be honest, until very recently, a Dickson victory seemed…
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I have a feeling that we might be so obsessed with predictions we could lose sight of what we are going to miss this new year. Why fuss over what will be in the New Year when you can cherish fond memories of years gone by? Imagine the anxiety that Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s prediction…
Continue Reading ...The minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has the gift of the gab. He sure can ask a man to go hell and make them look forward to the trip. But, honestly, I won’t mind taking that trip in his company, if…
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Naira Exchange Rate