Nigeria’s ‘unarmed Gunmen’

You will likely wonder at the obvious contradiction in the oxymoron of “unarmed gunmen.” Well, it’s just a way of saying that, on a deathly prowl in Nigeria of today, are individuals carrying arms without legal or state authorisation. To put it in a more explicit, though obverse, way, while legitimate bearers of arms are…

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Taking the Power of the Air

The content of the broadcast media -radio, television or the Internet- are sent from a source, to receiver, by air. So, if you said that the content of the broadcast media is air-borne, no one would think you were talking about a disease. Sometimes, broadcast engineers and communication scholars choose to describe the pathway of…

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Restoration of General Buhari

When curators choose to restore (usually) valuable artifact to its old glory, it is said to be restored. So it will be with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who is gradually going back to his old military self. After a chequered, enviable, career as a war officer, military commander, Minister of Petroleum Resources…

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The Making of a Dictator

To understand the implications of the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime’s plot to muzzle the media, it is necessary to trace the journey of the media and of the concept of freedom of expression in the service of democratic governance. The Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason of the 17th and…

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Nigerians Will Soon Go Hungry

Anyone who has seen OXFAM images showing kwarshiokor-ridden children, with big head, deep eyes, gaunt gait, distended belly, reed-thin legs and flies swarming around them will not wish famine for Nigeria. Despite the posturing of Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the overly hyped Anchor Borrowers’ scheme is not exactly translating to enough foodstuff…

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Of Transmissions and Non-transmissions

The word, transmission, may have been wrongly patented to a former Inspector General of Police by the National Assembly that probably thinks the brand could be devalued if the Independent National Electoral Commission uses electronic transmission for election results. If the ex-IG indeed exhibited such symptoms, it could mean he had dyslexia. Though some deny…

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CBN Is Not Doing Its Job

A more than disturbing news broke early last week when the media reported that the naira was exchanging at the parallel market at N503 to one US dollar! It looks like the naira is precipitously going downhill, like the Venezuelan bolivar soberano and Zimbabwean dollar. As of 2018, the inflation rate in Venezuela was 1,698,488…

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Education Exalteth a Nation

Clerics and evangelical Christians should please forgive the appropriation and reworking of a text of the Holy Book, “Righteousness exalteth a nation,” used to explain the importance of education to the economic development of Nigeria. While reacting in his usual robust manner to a previous serving of this column, Najeem Jimoh, friend, university classmate, journalist,…

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