By Bolanle Bolawole

Let us start our discussion today by considering a few quotes. “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!” – Stephen Decatur. “My country, right or wrong” has gone down in history as an expression of patriotism but what is patriotism? Patriotism is defined as the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country. Put in another way, it is the love for or devotion to one’s country, if I may add, with unquestioning submission. This must have been what propelled a one-time president of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, to make his famous call to duty to his fellow Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”; that was in his inaugural speech on 20 January, 1961.

By Hassan Gimba

One of the factors that determined the just concluded elections in Nigeria is religion. Oh, agreed, in our politics, religion has always been a factor in determining winners and losers. But never before was it flagrantly flaunted and made to be the driving force than in 2023.

By Okelo Madukaife

The views expressed by the spokesman of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Segun Sowunni on Channels Television recently, as it affects the grounds of legitimacy of the Tinubu-led central government, must make sense only to some wishful thinkers in the crumpling house of Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP).

By Azu Ishiekwene

If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hit the ground running, it was because problems chased him into office. Yet, it wasn’t long before he tripped on a matter in which his genius has been acknowledged: forming his cabinet.

By Emeka Obasi

Fifty seven years after his assassination, the departure of General Johnson Aguiyi - Ironsi continues to be engulfed in mystery. Even those closest to him came out with different versions of what transpired in Ibadan, on July 29, 1966.

By Godknows Igali, Ph.D

Few Nigerian statesmen have in the country’s history received the amount of adulation and accolades as ace journalist, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who governed Lagos State, the country economic nerve centre from 1979 to 1983. Often known simply by his initials LKJ, this former Nigerian Minister of Works, unlike many other politicians whose life works are only eulogized posthumously, has become the veritable centre point of good governance and quintessence of public service. In his honour, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) commenced the maiden Annual Lecture Series on August 7, 2023.

By Emeka Obasi

Those who use politics to confuse Nigerians must see the bond created by soccer in the last Naija Super8 Championships. At a time the polity was smeared with bloody interventions, Chief Adewunmi Ogunsanya made a bold statement.

By Hajiya Najatu Muhammad

Recent events in the affairs of our nation, most especially the risk of destabilising the entire West African region by the ECOWAS leaders necessitates the need to once again speak out and to call on all Nigerians to stand united in calling the ECOWAS leaders to order by denouncing violence, and by addressing the devastating consequences of war on human lives and societies.

By Peter Afunnanya, Ph.D, fsi

Recently, the media is awash with various commentaries about DSS disobedience to Court Orders. These accusations, as wrong as they are, have peaked in the Emefiele saga. It may interest the public and indeed the avowed critics of the Service to note the following incidents and timelines to show that it has religiously obeyed Court orders in respect of the case and even others.

By Bolanle Bolawole

A “wind of change” is blowing across Africa but this time around, it is not the same wind of change that erstwhile British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, spoke about - the positive wind of change blowing away colonial rule and ushering in Independence to the African colonies of Britain. Macmillan made his famous speech to the parliament of apartheid South Africa on 3rd February, 1960. The current wind of change sweeping across Africa, however, is that of military coup d’etat overthrowing so-to-say democratically-elected African governments and returning to power those that Samuel Edward Finer had referred to as the men on horseback – in one word, soldiers.

By Azu Ishiekwene

Not only are military coups becoming frighteningly frequent in West and Central Africa, virtually all of them, it appears, also speak French. For the fifth time in three years in West Africa, soldiers struck again in Niger, Nigeria’s Northern neighbour, where former President Muhammadu Buhari had teasingly longed for refuge from Nigeria’s hostile press.

By Bola Bolawole

The “honeymoon” enjoyed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is over – two months into the life of his administration, which has a lifespan of four years (48 months) in the first instance. While he is yet to fully form his government, Tinubu is already fighting fires on many fronts; his problems, unfortunately, are majorly self-inflicted. His “subsidy is gone” bombshell is one while the floating of the Naira is another, two nagging issues that the president tried to address in his first nationwide broadcast last Monday. Only a few misguided elements - the major beneficiaries of the bottomless pit of corruption called fuel subsidy and political partisans still sulking and bellyaching about Tinubu’s emergence as president - will fail to reason with the superior argument for the removal of subsidy as it was operated by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Tinubu, however, erred in the way he went about the removal.