Opinion

By Richard Ikiebe OPINION TOO often, we in the media elite, journalists, writers and intellectuals – behave as though we inhabit a different moral planet. The Good Book instructs he who is without sin to cast the first stone. I write on a human problem that touches all of us, more visibly manifest in some than others. I have not come with a sack of stones. I arrive, equally humbled, at the feet of a question we must answer together: what does the Epstein scandal reveal about the nature of power, and the nature of us all? Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019) was an American financier who, for nearly three decades, used money, access, and carefully cultivated relationships with some of the world’s most powerful people (heads of state, royalty, Nobel laureates, and billiona...

By Valentine Obienyem  AT the most recent burials of priests that I have attended, the homily was delivered by one of the deceased priests’ classmates. This is often done on the reasonable assumption that classmates, having shared many years of formation and priestly life with the deceased, know him intimately and can speak about his character and life from personal experience. Funeral orations by classmates and associates, whether delivered in church or at the graveside, often help, as it did today, to  preserve the personal memories, character and legacy of the deceased. But what happens when three priests are being buried simultaneously, as we witnessed today at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, with Bishop Paulinus Ezeokafor presiding? Who should deliver the homily? Wh...

By Umar Ardo OPINION I know we operate a political system that cares little for laws, values, integrity and honour. But there must be a limit to everything. Yet, like the contents of the infamous Epstein Files, the composition of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council for the 2027 presidential election appears to recognise no such limit. And that should concern every Nigerian who cares about the moral health of our democracy and country. 2. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has constituted the APC Presidential Campaign Council, with himself as Chairman, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda as Vice-Chairmen and former Zamfara Governor, Sen. Abdulaziz Yari, as Director-General. The council contains many of the country’s mos...

By Hassan Gimba OPINION NIGERIAN politics is so serious that it is no longer left in the hands of politicians. Or so it seems. We can see how Davido, carrying the South and a segment of Northern youths, and Rarara, with a huge fan base in the North, stand at the vanguard of the music industry, with their influence now extending into national politics, where their reach can shape public loyalties and political momentum. Davido and Rarara are Nigerian musicians and household names in the Nigerian music industry. Each has his own genre, audience, style and appeal, shaped by his background. Born on November 21, 1992, David Adedeji Adeleke (Davido) is a Nigerian-American. He holds dual citizenship because he was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. His father, ...

By Kio Amachree OPINION THERE is a peculiar silence in Nigeria today, and it is deafening. A former governor of Kaduna State, once one of the most powerful men in the country, sits in detention. By this week he will have spent 150 days in custody without conviction, for offences that are bailable . He has been held by the ICPC since February 18, 2026, facing multiple inter-agency prosecutions over alleged diversion of public funds, inflated severance packages, and breach of national security, and despite being granted bail by multiple courts between April and May, he remains locked up because the conditions attached are practically impossible to meet.  His wife has publicly alleged that he was denied access to his doctor and that she was prevented from delivering food...

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu OPINION IN 2005, Nigeria enacted the Electric Power Sector Reform Act to “establish the legal framework for the formation of initial and successor companies, transfer assets and liabilities from the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) to new entities, and create a competitive electricity market.” The previous year, Abdulaziz Yari had graduated with a diploma in secretarial studies from the Sokoto State Polytechnic. He was the state Chairman of the All-Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) in Zamfara State in north-west Nigeria. Over the 21 years since then, the paths of power sector reform in Nigeria and Abdulaziz Yari’s career in power have negotiated different trajectories to a place of unadulterated intercourse. Power sector refor...

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem I was delighted to learn from the attached video https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EuHA4cvr9/?mibextid=wwXIfr that Agaba Awgbu is back. Everything that happened after its arrest could have been lawfully carried out, and the public duly informed of the government’s action, without desecrating our customs and traditions in the manner that was done. The law enforcement authorities could simply have announced that those accompanying or acting on behalf of Agaba had been arrested, rather than stripping our tradition naked before the public. I saw some people justifying what happened, and I could only pray that our forefathers would forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing. In our eagerness to enforce the law, we must be careful not to r...

OPINION By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu JOSÉ Eduardo Van-Dúnem dos Santos was 37 when the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (better known by its Portuguese acronym, MPLA) chose him to succeed its founding president, Augustinho Neto, in September 1979. By 2010, dos Santos had been in power for 31 years. But the shy and retreating dos Santos was neither an enthusiastic glad-hander nor a wildly popular figure. For a long time, dos Santos laboured in search of a cure for both ailments. In 2010, he finally found one. Under Angola’s 1992 constitution, the president was the only leader with national standing. The citizens elected him directly on a national ticket. In December 2006, Angola issued a three-year notice of presidential election to be conducted in 2009. Whe...

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem THE Greek biographer Plutarch, in the preamble to his “Life of Alexander”, observed: “I am writing biography, not history; and the most brilliant exploits do not always manifest a man’s virtue or vice so well as a slight thing, a word or a jest, which often tells us more of his character than a siege where ten thousand die.” He understood that greatness is often revealed not by monumental achievements but by seemingly insignificant habits and moments. Thus, in seeking to understand Alexander, he did not begin with his conquests but with the youthful prince taming the wild horse Bucephalus after discerning that the animal feared only its own shadow. It was a small incident that revealed an extraordinary mind. The same approach is useful i...

OPINION By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu THE history of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) parallels the country’s political evolution. It began in 1900, the same year in which Queen Victoria’s British colonial government assumed formal authority over Nigeria after revoking the Royal Charter of Taubman Goldie’s Royal Niger Company. For the next 59 years, leadership of the NBA was a lifetime preferment. Christopher Sapara Williams became Nigeria’s first lawyer in 1888. Twelve years later, he emerged as the first Chairman of the national bar. Sapara Williams served in that role until his untimely death in 1915. His successor was acclaimed colonial collaborator, Sir Kitoyi Ajasa. Like Sapara Williams, Sir Kitoyi served until he died in 1937. He holds the record as the longe...