Opinion

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem AS far back as  we can ply into history, we observe that the pattern of the principled statesman recurs with rhythmic persistence. To observe the life of Mr. Peter Obi, both publicly and privately, is to witness a modern resonance of that ancient stoic harmony once embodied by Aristides. Aristides was an Athenian statesman and general who lived around 530–468 BC and became renowned for his honesty, fairness, and incorruptibility, virtues that earned him the title “the Just.”Have you heard of the book Parallel Lives, commonly called “Plutarch’s Lives?” Written by Plutarch, it explores the character, virtues, leadership, and moral choices of great men from Greek and Roman history by pairing their biographies –  Alexander the Great with Julius...

OPINION By Mike Arnold ON the biggest night of his second term — a ceasefire with Iran announced ninety minutes before his own deadline to destroy a civilization — Donald Trump strategically injected Nigeria into the global conversation. In a Truth Social post at 8:01 PM Eastern, seen by millions, he blasted CNN for reporting an Iranian victory statement — calling it a “FRAUD” linked to “a Fake News site (from Nigeria).” One sentence. Maximum audience. Nigeria is now in the room. This is how Trump operates. He doesn’t need a press conference. He plants a seed in the biggest news cycle of the year and lets the world’s gears start turning. Every foreign ministry that read that post now has Nigeria alongside Iran in their head. Every sleazy lobbyist on Tinubu’s payroll ...

OP-ED By Ali Elias Nigeria’s political conversation was recently stirred by a widely circulated statement reflecting a worldview that places competence above ethnic allegiance and leadership performance above symbolic identity.At its core lies a provocative assertion: support for political leadership should not be determined by where a candidate comes from, but by what that candidate represents. The statement’s defining line captures the philosophical centre of the debate: “Igbos don’t follow a king because he is a king but on what he is.”This idea, while controversial in public discourse, is not new. It echoes a long-recognised feature of Igbo political culture — decentralised authority, negotiated legitimacy and a tradition of evaluative leadership. In historical terms, power in ma...

OPINION By Suleiman A. Suleiman WHEN I read the news and commentary about an attempted coup in Nigeria since October last year, I have asked myself many times if this is nothing more than a “coup” on the pages of newspapers, and a “trial” of a coup only in the news.    Journalism, like the law, and science, is a business of evidence and verifiable facts. But so far, the facts of this case have been inconsistent and contradictory, and the evidence all but evident. It is the responsibility of the media to report the news about anything, including coups. But it is also the responsibility of the media to provide evidence of its reporting, be it a coup or a wedding. This responsibility is not to be taken lightly, and the higher the significance and likely public impact of a s...

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem YESTERDAY, I attended a function in Igbo-ukwu – the 100th birthday celebration of the mother of Fr. Louis Ezeilo. As I was stepping into the venue with my friend, Comrade Celestine Ostende Oguegbu, we noticed Fr. Paulinus Anaedum enthusiastically taking selfies with one of the masters of ceremony. My instinctive reaction was to wonder what could be so special about this MC that warranted such excitement from my old teacher. On closer look, I realized it was Ceelos Media (Oga Uwa). For the first time in my life, I found myself also struggling to take a selfie with him. Ostende did the same. In what felt like a moment of mutual recognition, the three of us simultaneously commended him for the quality of his work. Even his partner, whose face we are y...

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem WHENEVER I witness power tussles among nations, I naturally recall the realist who once said that nations weigh words by counting guns. Is this true? At such times, I remember how the Great Ideas, in A Syntopicon, begins its treatise on justice by invoking the encounter between the Athenian envoys and the Melian representatives, when they stood on a sword’s edge. This dialogue, preserved by Thucydides, serves as the ultimate historical collision between the idealism of “right” and the realism of “might.” When the Athenians arrived at the neutral island of Melos, they did not offer a moral justification for their aggression, but instead extended a cold invitation to acknowledge the reality of power. They swept aside the usual diplomatic appeals to just...

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu OPINION “A Judge who takes advantage of the judicial office for personal gain or for gain by his or her relative or relation abuses power…. such abuse of power profoundly violates the public’s trust in the judiciary.” *Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Rule 8:3 (2016)* Eight and a half years ago, in May 2017, a viral audio clip circulated, purportedly featuring a conversation between a male Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a female judge who had presided over an election petition involving the Senator in the preceding year. In the sound clip, both could be heard importuning one another. The female voice asked the Senator to ensure that whatever he delivered, he must “make it in USD (American dollars)...

OPINION By Steve Osuji  THE Battle Of Megalomaniacs: Why does everyone seem to miss the point? Why can’t Nigerians see that the ruckus in the Nigerian oil and gas sector is a battle between two sharks who seek total acquisition and complete takeover of the industry as part of their burgeoning personal empires? But Providence is kind to Nigeria and Nigerians. It is Nigeria’s good fortune that Alhaji Aliko Dangote was able to build and complete his mammoth-size refinery against extreme odds. It is also by a divine hand that President Bola Tinubu is the man at the helm in Nigeria today. Were the set up otherwise, if the heavens had not purposed the twain to tango at this crucial juncture, Nigeria’s story of the oil and gas system would have been different and indeed, much ...

OPINION Tunde Akanni “Like play…”, as they say, Dangote emerges the Man of the Year 2025!  A consumerist perspective, you may say. But who could have imagined that the 2024 Gen Zs’ “no gree for anybody” slogan would get a lease of life from the least likely quarter? Dangote volunteered. He tore through the muscles of powerful oil sectors’ big men. Only one was in sight but big ones fell! And even a third. Dangote no gree for anybody.   He has come to reaffirm his conquest of the sector. May the conquest signal better future for citizens. Yeah, unlike POTUS Trump, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, ran an unusual race and breasted the tape. By all means, Trump, strangely, sought the Nobel Peace Prize this year, 2025 but it all ended in praise.  For the judges, as you k...

OPINION By Valentine Obienyem I often write about religion, and by its very nature it is a subject on which I am frequently and deliberately  misunderstood. Any serious engagement with religion, especially one that questions its social consequences, almost inevitably provokes hostility. I recall an interview granted by Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu in which he spoke about religious war. He said he would never wish such a war on Nigeria because, once people begin to fight in the name of religion, they take leave of their reasons. That observation has stayed with me. This, indeed, is the kind of reaction one encounters when writing critically about religion. No matter how rational or carefully argued one’s position may be, the responses often come in torrents of abuse rather ...