By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Where debates arise over ownership of property, our forebears drew from their perspicacity to reach decisions that may not be conclusive. There is wisdom, therefore, in the ancients saying, "someone is the owner of what belongs to us". If we apply this saying to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, the subtleties of our forefathers become more obvious. Is it our NNPCL, their NNPCL, or whose NNPCL?

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Bello Turji is not an an ordinary bandit. He sets his rules, enforces them, while wondering why he is grossly misunderstood. If you ask him, he would tell you he is in search of justice.

By Azu Ishiekwene

I don’t get involved with what the security services do or how. Their ways are so complex and their motives so unsearchable that sometimes you’ll be forgiven for thinking that working from the answer to the question is the standard operating procedure. Of course, you are told that whatever happens in between is in the public interest.

By Hassan Gimba

Yes, we are at war! This much we said last week. But the curious and sad thing is that Nigerians don’t seem to know or don’t want to know, and our leaders don’t seem to care. Our security agencies, whose activities are akin to the movement of wavelengths, continue with the aura of “everything is all right” when the trajectory is low, only to chase after those fighting Nigeria when the trajectory shoots up.

By Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji

Virtually everyone in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State was elated when the party announced a meeting between party leaders, aspirants and the people's governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON. Some clarity was to finally come regarding the ruling party"s Primaries in preparation for the local government elections scheduled for Saturday, September 21, 2024.

By Hassan Gimba

This article was first published in December 2017 and repeated with minor changes a few times. I am repeating it because I find it very relevant and perhaps it may make us view Nigeria first over many of the things that pull us apart. Why should a citizen hail a leader today but wail tomorrow when a different leader does what he hailed yesterday? Or why should he wail today when just yesterday he was hailing a different person doing the same thing?

By Steve Osuji

It’s corruption, stupid. Dr Reuben Abati is a public intellectual. Love him or not, his mind is first rate and he has operated in Nigeria’s publicshere over the past three decades as editorial writer, columnist and currently, television pundit/ celebrity of the intellectual kind. He has all this while, been immersed in public affairs both as an outsider and a participant observer in government.

By Ola Awoniyi

The passage of the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Bill 2024 by the National Assembly is now history. The Bill, which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has already signed into law, amended the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 by increasing the Minimum Wage from 30,000 Naira to 70,000 Naira and reducing the time for periodic review of the National Minimum Wage from five years to three years.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Moses Ugbisien, winner of a 4x400m bronze medal in athletics, 40 years ago at the Los Angeles Olympics, called thrice recently. Two of the calls were in the course of the Olympic Games in Paris. Expectedly they were about Nigeria participating in the Olympic Games as circumstantial ceremonies. Complaints are legion. Comments have been driven by what we know about the medalless contingent. In most cases, our premises are cast on assumptions, wrong assumptions.

By Bolanle Bolawole

Yesterday, the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests ran its full gamut. In the days, weeks, months and years to come, pundits, critics and analysts will continue to discuss, review, critique and draw useful lessons from it. Did it fail? Did it succeed? Have lessons been learned on both sides of the divide? Will the protagonists as well as antagonists of the protests organize and behave better in future? The answers will depend on who is providing them!

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has only a few who love him. Some of them were on the streets in the past days to express their frustration about what their Jagaban has become though many were still not sure what they expected the Tinubu presidency to be. Of course, the tinier group whose face the President sees daily loves his Office. It farms out opportunities and patronages it generates which the President's favourites grab in mindlessness scrambles that point to their purpose. It is also their turn.

By Hassan Gimba

This was first written on March 17, 2024, with a different headline. Perhaps we may still find it relevant in these trying times.

Last week, we read how the signs are not looking good for a nation like ours that wants to be reckoned with internationally. We concluded by asking the federal government to look at ways to reduce the cost of governance and the unimaginable take-home pay of political leaders and redirect the excess towards production. And we emphasised that we must become a productive nation that eats, drives and wears what it produces.