In 1963, the great Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, and Premier of the defunct Northern Region, came to Otukpo where he commissioned the power station run by the then Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) that gave electricity to Otukpo metropolis. With that singular act, Otukpo became one of the few divisional capitals that had electricity supply in northern Read More
Sometime in 2019, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance in both the Obasanjo and the Jonathan administrations, spoke of the need for federal and state governments to pay some urgent attention to the development of the rural areas. Matters are getting worse there and for the country as a whole, obviously. Did anyone need to remind our leaders that Read More
President Muhammadu Buhari recently responded to the persistent warning on the brewing famine in Africa’s largest economy by calling on all Nigerians to return to farm. There are fears that the president’s call was not directed to those who could stem the brewing famine. Olusegun Obasanjo as military head of state made a similar call in 1977 when he launched Read More
Outgoing 45th President of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, was said to have German roots. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, is said to be Scottish. His paternal ancestry is traceable to Bobenheim am Berg, a village in the Palatinate, Germany, in the 18th century. Johann Trump, born there in 1789, moved to the nearby town of Kallstadt Read More
President Muhammadu Buhari, this week, issued a stern warning to agencies of government saddled with the responsibility of revenue generation to work hard to meet their targets or get sanctioned.The president issued the warning after signing the N13.588 trillion 2021 Appropriation Bill and the 2020 Finance Bill into law. In this respect, both the Legislative and the Executive are commended Read More
Email: [email protected] SMS: 08055001912 The dust Bishop Hassan Kukah raised in his Christmas 2020 sermon has somewhat settled down. At least, I cannot feel it swirling around anymore and inviting sycophantic reactions from the barely informed, the totally uninformed and men who make a good living from dedicated sycophancy. We have to look under the carpet now to see the weighty Read More
2020, the most turbulent year in modern history is gone, and, as most would wish, it’s gone with the wind — carting away pain, sorrow and destruction. The pandemic-plagued year had a disruptive effect on practically all spheres of human endeavors, across the world. It is an end, of an ironically eventful decade, which had all forms of tales — Read More
Most Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, is a catholic priest that burst onto the public domain as a reverend father. Reverend Father thus stuck to him like a second skin. Whatever official progression he achieved in his calling, he has remained a reverend father in the minds of many, including yours truly. I had two favourite writers Read More
I have witnessed many decades in my lifetime… as a kid, teenager and now an adult. But no year was as unpredictable and horrible as the year 2020. I’m not in the habit of making New Year resolutions. In fact, I don’t wait for an old year to negotiate the final bend before resolving what to package for the coming Read More
It could not get more desperate or more pathetic than this – the deepening national insecurity casting a lengthening and darkening shadow on the nation, that is. On December 29, Borno State government resorted to its own self-help measure to contain the worsening insecurity in the state. It turned to hunters and a vigilante group in Hawul Local government area Read More
Indeed, the problems associated with soaring prices of foods are many and worrisome and the need to address them is appreciated by all meaningful Nigerians and their leaders. In fact, this week, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration will keep a keen eye on food inflation in the New Year. As part of the measures designed to achieve Read More
When he left Gusau in then Sokoto State to join the Nigerian Defence Academy, in Kaduna in 1984 as a member of 36 Regular Combatant Course, the young Mohammed was taking a path chosen by few. It is a path where many are called but few are chosen; a path fraught with imminent danger of death, beyond the prestige, glitter Read More
Around 2016 or thereabout, our paths crossed. We met in the house of Muhammed Idris Malagi, the Chairman of Blueprint Newspaper and in company of her friend, we had interesting conversations bordering on the relatively new government of the day and the strategies leading to the first ever victory of the opposition over a sitting government and some of the Read More
penchant for dangerous romance with controversy. In fact, some think that controversy is the middle name of Nigeria’s minister of communication and digital economy. Sometime in May 2020, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the efficient executive chairperson of Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) ran from pillar to post telling anyone who cared to listen that Pantami was behind the armed men who forced NIDCOM Read More
I first met Sam in March 2015. He had the idea for in-depth coverage of states beyond “The governor said…” with which state reporters inundated their newsrooms. Yobe state was of particular interest to him. So he reached out to me through a friend, Hassan Maina Kaina, of the Hausa Service of the Voice of America. He might have known Read More
The piece below is a throwback to the 2018 Christmas, published in this space on December 23 of that year. I find the recall appropriate to lighten your mood especially in this pandemic era. The headline is also relevant today… a Christmas like no other. It is the first festive period to be celebrated “pandemically”. The 2019 festivity escaped the Read More
Apparently, it is in view of the resurgence of the coronavirus that President Muhammadu Buhari, this week, decided to extend the mandate of the Presidential Task Force on Control of COVID-19 to March 2021.The president disclosed this in Abuja while receiving the End-of-Year Report of the Presidential Task Force.He said the nation cannot afford to lose the gains of the Read More
Death does not diminish its strangeness any time it comes knocking at our door. So was Sam Nda-Isaiah’s, simply known as Sam or chairman. The media community in Nigeria was stunned at the abruptness of Sam’s passing on December 11, 2020, which threw members into mourning, and that includes me. I was particularly hard hit, because of our conversations and Read More
Professor Mahmoud Yakubu is back at his duty post as INEC chairman after he stepped aside briefly for the senate to confirm him for a second term. He has promptly served notice that he is bent on pursuing some amendments in both the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act to strengthen the commission and commit it being fair to all Read More
Coffin makers, lawyers and doctors all belong to the mold of professionals whose business thrive when calamity strikes humanity. Coffin makers make money when more people die. Naturally, they do not want people to die. But they would be bankrupt if no one dies.Doctors swim in cash when there is an epidemic. Ironically doctors are trained to ensure that people Read More
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. – Martin Luther King Kankara. A Hausa word for ice. This uncountable noun is a name that reminds me of youth in two ways: One natural, the other artificial. When we were young, we entered the rain to collect “kankara” and ground them with our teeth. Another Read More
After a year’s long debate between those who agreed and disagreed with the decision of the government to close the country’s borders with its neighbours, this week, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the reopening of four of the land borders. The federal government, last year, announced borders closure as part of an effort to curb smuggling of rice and other goods, Read More
Concerned Nigerians is a civic group of eminent compatriots some of whom have been in the trenches for many years in the frustrating and dispiriting struggle to rejig our nation and make it a fair and just society for all its citizens. The group boasts of some 43 eminent Nigerians among whom are such well-known men as Bishop Hassan Kukah, Read More
History teaches us about past events. It answers questions of ‘how’ ‘where’ and ‘when’ did events occur. The essence of seeking answers to such questions is nothing more than to reflect and avoid repeating same mistakes. In Nigeria, history was a subject in the before it was removed from the secondary school curriculum. About four weeks ago, around 8pm to Read More
Nigeria’s 36 state governors have finally woken from their devious slumber. It has now dawned on them that they are sitting on a mountain of decaying infrastructure where roads have become death traps and the rural communities that produce 70 per cent of Nigeria’s food items, are practically inaccessible. They now know that Nigeria has one of the highest infant Read More
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