Punch

Now that President Bola Tinubu has greenlighted the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, those shooting down the project should go and “sempe,” or cool off, as fuji musician, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, may have put it. The wet blankets remind one of former Military Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, who reportedly stood down the Lagos…

The N19 that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission recommends for electricity distribution companies to shave off the extortionate tariff of helpless customers in Band A markets, who are actually paying for darkness, is “underwhelming.” And, by the way, the new agency, with the splendid name, Nigerian Independent System Operator of Nigeria Limited, recently created by…

It is a welcome development that the Central Bank of Nigeria finally withdrew its circular requesting banks to deduct the cybersecurity levy after the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu ordered its withdrawal. When America’s State of Massachusetts overburdened its residents with too many taxes, it was christened “Taxachusetts.” The sundry taxes that the Tinubu…

Last week, the Ijebu of South-West Nigeria rolled out the drums to celebrate Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, as he celebrated his 90th birthday and 64th anniversary as the Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland. Everyone, royalty, nobility, the well-heeled and plebeian, came out to salute a man of courage, wisdom and statecraft. Even President Bola…

Former Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is trending these days the way crossdresser Bobrisky trended on social media for mutilating the naira because there were no serious matters to discuss. One is joining the fray because some friends in the church turned it into a matter for discourse last Sunday. Not even a protest…

Nigerians love to play ethnic politics, mixed with religion. If you check the pattern of votes, even from the First Republic, you will observe that every presidential (or First Republic Prime Ministerial) candidate always had his highest votes amongst his ethnic nationality, even if he lost the election. Since 1922 when Lord Frederick Lugard, Nigeria’s…

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, should use the most obvious silver bullet solution to sort out Nigeria’s electricity sector’s penkelemesi, which his grandfather may have described as a peculiar mess. Ministry of Finance Incorporated, the holding corporation of the Federation, also owns a significant stake in electricity generation companies and electricity distribution companies that it makes…

“Ebi npa wa,” or, we are starving, is the emblem of want, deprivation, probably famine. It is an expression of the desperation and fear that Nigerians confront in these days of 31.70 per cent headline inflation and 35.92 per cent food inflation. During the last Easter celebrations, the spoons in many homes went on holiday and…

Recently the naira surprisingly experienced a gain in value. But it was only because demand for the dollar inexplicably dipped. Imagine if buyers of Nigeria’s petroleum must first buy the naira in order to pay Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. Kenya’s President William Ruto wonders, “Why (it is) necessary for Africans to buy things in…

By acting in ways incongruous with their schedules, some public office holders demonstrate a lack of focus. If they do, they may be deliberately creating, for themselves, opportunities to spend public funds inappropriately. Governor Yemi Cardoso of the Central Bank of Nigeria delivered two million bags of fertilisers worth N100bn to the Minister of Agriculture…