By Steve Osuji

THE BEAUTIFUL THIEVES:

Should we make a law urgently that our beautiful women should never be allowed near the national till? Has anyone else noticed the seeming emerging trend of our women public officials outdoing the men in making a mess of our national treasury? The womenfolk seem to take no prisoners when they have opportunity to attack and they show exceptional impunity and the iron balls of hardened pyrates. In May 2014, this column (then appearing in The Nation newspaper), had described Diezani Alison-Madueke as “the beautiful thief”). Diezani was minister in charge of Petroleum under President Goodluck Jonathan.

By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-chief) @CelestineOkaf11

Immediate-past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPL) Limited and former Anambra North Senator, Senator Margery Okadigbo, speaks on the twentieth anniversary of the death of her husband and Nigeria's former Senate President, Dr Chuba Okadigbo.

By Emeka Obasi

National Security Adviser ( NSA ) Nuhu Ribadu needs to begin 2024 with a private dinner with the Service Chiefs devoid of work environment. It should be a no holds barred party, spiced with choice wines, anecdotes and sidetalks.

By Emeka Obasi

Anytime Nigeria confronted West African hosts in the group stage of the African Nations Cup, the Eagles ended up as third best. It began in 1978, happened again in 1992 and continued in 2002.

By C. Don Adinuba

Chukwuemeka Pius Ezeife, Anambra State governor from January 1992 to November 1993 who died last month at 86, hauled himself up by the bootstraps and became an embodiment of progress. He took to apprentice trading on leaving primary school owing to a paucity of funds. Yet, before anyone knew it, he had obtained a doctorate in economics from Harvard, becoming a lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda. At the end of the Nigerian Civil War in 1970, he rejoined the federal civil service, retiring as a permanent secretary. He then dived straight into business and left a footprint in no time. He also rose rapidly in politics, as became the Social Democratic Party (SDP) governor after a series of gruesome fights. His life was marked by grit, resilience, simplicity, and an unwavering commitment to the public good.

By Funke Egbemode

You are 33 and not doing badly. You are comfortable and beautiful but your love of easy money has blurred your childhood vision of a cozy happy home with children and a husband that loves you to bits. Your once vivid dream of falling in love and marrying early to raise four children while nurturing a career has since given way to the steady ready flow of cash and ‘baby of life’ lifestyle. You are now a chartered side chick, living on the side street of some other women’s lives. The man you love is not your own.

By Bola Bolawole

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must by now have addressed the nation on four solid occasions. The first was his inauguration address on May 29, 2023, which is best described as the “subsidy is gone” address. Democracy Day (June 12), Independence anniversary (October 1st) and now his New Year address were some of the other important occasions on which the President has addressed his “fellow compatriots” The opening paragraph of the President’s last address, what we journalists call the “intro” or introduction, almost put me off. Any professional journalist or speechwriter knows the importance of an “intro”. It makes or mars any speech.

By Azu Ishiekwene

After futile attempts by others to get the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of genocide against the parties in the war in Gaza, South Africa raised the stakes by filing a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Unlike the ICC, the ICJ is an organ of the UN for civil complaints, and Israel is a signatory to its charter.

By Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba

December 27, 2023 dawned in a very grim manner. As I woke up, I saw a news item on the scroll bar of Channels Television that Ghali Umar Na’Abba 8th Speaker of the House of Representatives had passed on at the age of 65. The son of a wealthy Kano aristocrat, he became Speaker by default after the removal of Salisu Buhari, a short lived Speaker after a forgery scandal. A man of steeled convictions he became Speaker at the defining moment of our democracy.

By Hassan Gimba

An Igbo adage says that when an anomaly persists for one year, it becomes the norm. So slowly, steadily but surely, it is becoming a norm, an accepted aberration, for a president in Nigeria to appoint himself as a minister. It is like saying in a country of 200 million-plus, there is no one good or capable enough to hold that particular office except the man entrusted with the running of the nation.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

A bank once filled prime time television with a message asking us to imagine that one day cars will run with water. The power of imagination! It takes one to a future that not many see; a future that seems foolish, or unimaginable because it has not been imagined.