Opinion

OPINION By SKC Ogbonnia FELLOW Nigerians! Political violence has become the daily norm across our country—stretching from the East to the West and the North. State-sponsored hostility is actively weaponized against Peter Obi, Omoyele Sowore, Atiku Abubakar, and the broader opposition. Nigeria is under siege, forcing the ultimate question first raised by former First Lady Aisha Buhari: “Where are the men of Nigeria?” Yes, where are the Nigerian masses? The objective fact is that Nigeria is currently witnessing the Tinubu “Lagos Blueprint” of political terror in its most naked form. This terrifying wave of state-sponsored thuggery, targeted ambushes, and cold-blooded political assassinations is sweeping across the country like never before. In a desperate, scorched-earth camp...

By Richard Ikiebe LAST week, Britain’s King and Prime Minister were in the Caribbean amid renewed debate over the country’s historical responsibility for slavery. Caribbean nations are pressing Britain to acknowledge the consequences of its imperial past, while the British government weighs whether an apology should extend to reparative action. This debate raises a fundamental question: who has the authority to interpret the past and determine its meaning for the present? The irony is that, in Nigeria, over six decades after independence, some still turn to a former colonial Governor-General’s writings to validate their ethnic identities or disparage others. The circumstances differ, but the underlying question is related.  As the 2027 elections approach, verbal combat be...

OPINION By Steve Osuji THEY didn’t know that we knew. There was a popular joke of the 90s christened: they didn’t know that we knew. It is actually best rendered in Yoruba. The title, which is in itself hilarious in its native state is: Eyin o mo pe awa mo. Let’s attempt a go at the joke: An Egun barber called Agosu, was a tenant to a randy landlord. Agosu had tenanted in the house for so long without a rent increment or nary a rough word from Baba Landlord. One day, Baba Landlord came for a haircut at the shop of Agosu, his tenant. It was still the age of cutting hair with a pair of scissors. At a point in the process of cutting the hair, Agosu the barber lowered the pair of scissors around the jugular of Mr. Landlord,  squeezing it dangerously tight but refraining...

OPINION By  Thanny, Noeem Taiwo, PhD THE moccasin is a unique kind of shoe. It usually features a softly stitched sole, often adorned with embroidery to show elegance, yet it remains rugged enough to withstand adverse weather. It was a brilliant piece of literary art when Mary T. Lathrap used the moccasin as an analogy for empathy in her 1895 poem, “Judge Softly”, popularizing the phrase “walking a mile in another man’s moccasins.” Empathy defines a profound understanding of someone else’s life, struggles, and viewpoint. While sympathy connotes simple pity, empathy demands a deeper engagement. It calls for walking the thorny path an individual has trodden before judging their actions. Sometimes, these actions may appear insensitive or inconsiderate, but they are often nec...

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu OPINION WHEN he announced the military coup in Nigeria on 15 January 1966, Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu denounced a confederacy of “political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 percent.” At the time, Nigeria was mostly funded by agriculture and solid minerals. Seven years later, that changed. Following the onset of the Arab-Israeli War in October 1973, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) weaponised the price of oil. In the year that followed, oil prices rose over ten times. For oil-producing countries, it was a windfall. Nigeria was one of the beneficiaries of what became known as the “oil boom”. In the words of then military ruler, Yakubu Gowon, our problem wa...

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...