Punch

Maybe you’ve seen television footage or newspaper reports of President Bola Tinubu meeting with Aliko Dangote of Dangote Group and AbdulSamad Rabiu of BUA Group, leading members of the cement cartel, whose pricing has become skittish. That tells you that the President, who said, “We are looking for additional efforts that might help the downtrodden…

Following is how Wikipedia describes the theme of Maya Angelou’s autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: “Those without freedom suffer through imprisonment. Not being able to be one’s true self can result in damaging consequences in a person’s state of mind and success. “A person who constantly feels the weight of discrimination…

Because the government of President Bola Tinubu is slow in responding to the frightening insecurity and spiralling economy of Nigeria, suggestions on how to turn things around should be offered without worrying if they will be rebuffed or even ignored. As kidnapping, murder and (somewhat reduced) insurgency fuel insecurity, the sputtering economy is accompanied by…

The boastful people of southwestern Nigeria, who insist that their region is the most prosperous and the most secure in Nigeria, must now ask themselves, “Quo vadis?” Their pride of place doesn’t seem secure anymore. The Afenifere sociopolitical association that birthed the Alliance for Democracy political party of the South-West ahead of the return of…

This question is necessary because Nigerians are wondering why a government that came with a can-do posture is acting clueless the same way the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan acted. With the current shortage of cash in circulation within the Nigerian economy, one must ask if Godwin Emefiele, who couldn’t think through his naira…

The British colonisers and Bretton Woods institutions–the World Bank and International Monetary Fund- that introduced the current foreign exchange regime know that the template bodes no good for the forever oppressed peripheral economies. By the way, do Spain and the Netherlands, which respectively buy petroleum and cocoa from Nigeria, have a cache of naira to…

The highwayman maxim, “He who comes to equity must come with clean hands,” may not exactly fit the alleged corruption in the government of President Bola Tinubu, but it draws attention to the need for moral high ground in that government. The “Edugate,” that intruded into the consciousness of Nigerians as 2024 rolled in, is…

Yet again, Nigeria’s Middle Belt suffered another crude and devastating blow of terrorism. Nigerians in more than 20 communities in the Bokkos, Mangu (home of the state governor), and Barkin-Ladi in Plateau State lost lives, limbs, livelihoods, homes and sense of community in this digital age of the 21st Century. Just on 2023 Christmas Day,…

After praising the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, for ensuring that Nigerian citizens get their passports within a short space of time, a friend, who is also an immigration lawyer, added that he should speed up the issuing of e-passports. The Nigerian e-passport was officially launched in May 2007, toward the end of the administration…

The call by President Bola Tinubu for West Africans to shun coups d’etat and anti-democratic tendencies led to this attempt to trace the cause of the failure of democratic governance in Nigeria and possibly suggest how to get this floundering Fourth Republic right. The nostalgia for the days of military rule, that kindled the return…