By Emeka Obasi

Cameroonians love music as much as they play soccer. The land of Manu Dibango produced the music that was adopted by Shaqira at the South Africa 2010 Mundial. Ginger Forcha and Wrinkar Experience are not left out.

By Hassan Gimba

Who has not had an old car before? The type of car that makes you become a friend to the mechanic? This is because when one issue is resolved, another rears its head, necessitating you to visit again. Sometimes the problem may be those of “rings”. Repair them and the gearbox seeks your notice. Pacify it, the brake pad packs up. Change it, the shock absorber begins to get shocked.

By Deji Adeleke

The struggle and clamour for a new Nigeria that is economically strong and infrastructurally developed is only possible with very active and responsible followership, Pro-Chancellor of Adeleke University, Dr Adedeji Adeleke has declared.

By Orji Uduma

Disobedience simply means refusing or neglecting to obey rules and regulations. When Alex Otti and supposed members of the Labour Party (LP) in Abia State were busy shouting: “We are obedient”, little did they know that, on the contrary, they were obediently disobedience to the electoral laws.

By C. Don Adinuba

If you ask Nigerians to name past power ministers randomly, it is most likely that they will start with Bart Nnaji, the preeminent engineering professor in the United States who has for almost two decades been almost synonymous with history-changing initiatives in the Nigerian electric power sector. Nnaji left office over a decade ago. He served for only one year, from July 2011 to August 2012.

By Hassan Gimba

This was first published on October 29, 2018. Considering the resuscitation of the issue by the new Kano State Government, I see the need to republish it.

While we knew and respected each other from a distance, I first met Ja’afar Ja’afar in 2015 when I was serving my second stint as the editor of Friday Leadership.

Journalists have a way of knowing themselves through various networks even if they had never met. Journalism is a profession like any other that builds one’s reputation in the eyes of the world. Knowing the hassles one goes through to put a paper to bed or produce an article, colleagues rate themselves even from afar.

Ja’afar, with his equally double-barrelled named journalist twin brother, AbdulAzeez AbdulAzeez, is one of those not too young to write and not too old to dare firebrand journalists that enjoy their work not necessarily because of the fame it can bestow, or the money that isn’t there, but largely because of the adrenaline that courses through one’s veins when faced with danger. Saying the truth can be dangerous.

He may be seen as a controversial young chap by many, but hey – truth, most times, comes wrapped in controversies. Is there a prophet that was not seen as controversial in the beginning? Or a revolutionary that was welcomed without invoking controversies in society? Any change from the known or a challenge to the established order brings with it a certain dose of controversy.

We all know, not just suspect, that many of our leaders are sleazy. They steal our commonwealth, especially through contract inflation and collusion with contractors – their partners in crime. At the end of the day, no work is done or where done, poorly executed while funds have been disbursed for them.

In other cases, to cut their losses, contractors who had been short-changed by government officials deliver substandard projects and services. In most cases, they abandon the projects midway. And those who should hold them to account cannot because they had eaten from the forbidden pot.

Unfortunately, it is always the ripped-off citizens that hail their cheats and damn those who expose them.

Corruption, it has been said, is not chickenhearted; it always fights back. This is why it is hoped that it is not the case when we see pictures of pre-puberty school children, whose future is being mortgaged by the corrupt, being used as cannon fodder, bearing placards denouncing Ja’afar and “promising” to vote for Ganduje next year.

While the Ja’afar video is under probe, I would not opine on their veracity or otherwise but call on all relevant authorities to do what is needed because such a case can only be likened to the Godwin Daboh versus Joseph Tarka or even the Nasir el-Rufa’i versus the Senate saga. They are defining events that can shape our thinking as a nation.

Ja’afar risks being regarded unfavorably if the video is doctored, but he also will be a celebrity of sorts if the video is proven to be genuine. He will become our modern-day Dele Giwa and perhaps get his sculpture erected in the Journalists’ Hall of Fame when we get one.

Governor Ganduje will politically fizzle out in ignominy if the video is authenticated, but his hand will be strengthened if they turn out to be doctored. People will read it as desperation by his political enemies, but especially it would be said that they set out to embarrass President Muhammadu Buhari.

The way to give a bite to the anti-corruption crusade is to give people like Ja’afar political appointments if he comes out victorious because such people would have a reputation to guard jealously. There are others like him, but the orientation of our leaders is to give appointments to “team players”. Their definition of a “team player” is a person who will partake in defrauding people without letting the cat out of the bag.

There had been cases of people society expected uprightness from but had entered into a “quid pro quo” arrangement and smiled to their banks. Anybody who will expose vice anywhere deserves commendation.

However, my chief concern is the contractor who agreed to be part of this sting operation, assuming it happened. He risks losing it all. No longer get any patronage from that angle, because the governor must know him very well. He has a family to cater for and has commitments and obligations, yet he was fearless enough to go through with this. He is a patriotic citizen who can sacrifice his interests for Nigeria. Not many like him around.

But if he can take this kind of risk for Nigeria, what is Nigeria going to do for him?

People fighting corruption this way not only risk their livelihoods but also their lives. So it won’t be out of place for the country to give him some kind of social protection for such an exemplary act. After all is said and done and he is proved true, the whistle-blower’s reward would also be a good idea, in addition to whatever else may follow.

There must be a deliberate policy by the government to protect such people and their families, or they would be left vulnerable to the mercy of wounded public officials or the “esprit de corps” that is strong among the class of our “polithiefians”.

Those in authority only hire their own to gain control and form an army of corruption to fight back. They emasculate the upright physically, mentally and financially.

The fight against corruption must be intensified and won. For as many smooth operators, there will always be patriots who will blow the whistle. However, the fight will be lost or won depending on how the government treats or mistreats all involved.

If corrupt acts take place, the government must show its teeth and protect those who bell the cat. But if a reputation is tarnished unfairly, authorities must take action to deter others.

...Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime. NNL.

By Azu Ishiekwene

You may have seen it. The list, of course. Those who think that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not moving fast enough to appoint ministers have offered to help. They have composed their own ministerial list for him and shared it on social media. It’s trending now.

By Chuka Nnabuife

"THEY will hate you, Pretend they love you now But who Jah bless' No one can... eliminate...."

THOSE lines sound familiar. They are from a Bob Marley lyric.

The legendary Jamaican reggae act who died in 1981 left some of the most incisive mind-boggling meditative songs of modern pop.

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Yesterday, July 12, my secondary school classmate who lives in Germany sent me yet another sit-at-home notice from Simon Ekpa, the self-nominated Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government-in-Exile (BRGIE).

By Emeka Obasi

What a reunion it was for Kola Adebayo and Kayode Ojo, two cousins who did not know each other until soccer brought them face to face. It was not a pleasant story.

By Emeka Obasi

Until Ishaq Oloyede assumed office as Registrar in 2016, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was in bazaar mode. His predecessor, Dibu Ojerinde, is still in court trying to explain how five billion naira failed him and four of his children.

By Emeka Obasi

Okey Emmanuel Isima was top striker of Holy Ghost College, Owerri ( Hogosco) when they won the East Central Schools Cup in 1974. As defending champions in 1975, they were battered by Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha ( DMGS ).