By Steve Osuji

COGNITIVE BLOCKADE AND CRIPPLING INERTIA: Nigeria continues to slide. All economic indicators are red; some are blipping, indicating danger. Those who know are in deep worry. The populace is in a trance, zombified by a never-seen-before strange situation. But the Presidency, the fulcrum of government continues in its empty braggadocio – they doodle and paper over cracks as the ship of state takes more water and totter.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Senator Shehu Sani's contributions to national commentaries that gained more national traction during his four-year spell at the Senate would soon be shredded if the thrusts of his narratives keep tilting towards serving Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the North. We are told that he is not serving Tinubu - he is saving Nigeria. It is clear he is not saving us from Tinubu. In ancient times, navigators and travellers used the North Star as a way to determine their location and navigate the seas. The North Star survived the circumstances of those times. It is still a symbol of hope and direction, a moral compass, guiding people towards worthy causes.

By Bolanle Bolawole

What you are about to read was written by me and was published in The PUNCH edition of Monday, July 7, 1998; which is 26 years ago, the very day the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Basorun MKO Abiola, died in incarceration in Abuja. I must have scribbled the piece a day or two before Abiola’s death; it is titled “Abiola: Coming home empty-handed?” Enjoy it:

By Azu Ishiekwene

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to the job as an afterthought, yet his days in Number 10 were numbered before he received the ceremonial blessings of King Charles III.

By Hassan Gimba, anipr

This is the continuation of the article of last week, republished as a result of our current "search" for a more viable political system. It should be noted that they were first published over three years ago.

Olujide Mayowa

With the renewed determination of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fight all forms of corruption in a more professional manner and with due regard for propriety, efficiency and respect for the rule of law, it is the expectation of Nigerians that anti-corruption agencies in the country will align with the President’s reinvigorated commitment and discard the toga of media trials and leaks, or being used as instruments of blackmail and character assassination, particularly of public office holders.

By Hassan Gimba

This was first published on September 23, 2019. Considering the recent moves to return Nigeria to regionalism, I see the need to repeat it.

By Bolanle Bolawole

Two strange fires struck in two far-flung areas of Lagos last week; one at the headquarters of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy church at Oregun and the other at the fledgling refinery of Africa’s touted richest man, Aliko Dangote. Who dunnit? If the fire at Christ Embassy can be described as an act of God or the carelessness of one person or the other, that at Dangote’s refinery was really suspicious, coming, as it were, a few days after a top official of the refinery had cried out that they were being frustrated by oil cabals bent on perpetuating the country’s profligacy of importation of refined petroleum products with the concomitant payment of fuel subsidy that has run the country’s balance sheet jaded.

By Ola Awoniyi

About a fortnight ago, the Nigerian media widely reported that the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence recommended, in a report, that the Federal Government should purchase new aircraft for the use of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. The House had in May mandated the Committee to investigate the conditions of the aircraft in the Presidential fleet. That assignment followed a motion earlier debated by the House.

By Azu Ishiekwene

It was different 16 years ago. Very different. At that time, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was relatively new and walking where angels feared to tread. That was unusual for a government institution, especially a law enforcement agency.

By Bola Bolawole

On the evening of Tuesday, 16 January, 2024, an explosion rocked Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state. The location of the explosion was later identified as Aderinola Street, Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija Estate. The explosion was of such magnitude that people in the vicinity thought the world had come to an end!

By Hassan Gimba

NGO is the acronym for Non-Governmental Organisation and as the name suggests, they are non-profit bodies formed to carry out non-governmental functions and thereby fill gaps that governments and even the private sectors could not affect or where their impacts are minimal while the needs are necessary. They are meant to be agents of development, more especially at the grassroots level, while engaging the citizenry with a deliberate agenda to awaken their awareness and desire for positive social changes that would enhance their quality of life while driving them to make their world a better place.