Author: Emporium Reporters

Before you scroll off in anger: calm down. He is real. He has been in Nigeria longer than some of you reading this have been alive. His children go to school here. His grandchildren may well be buried here. The Lebanese community in Nigerian business is not a rumour, not a colonial hangover awaiting apology, and not going anywhere. They are woven into the fabric of commerce in this country. So pour yourself something cold and read on.   I will not name him — that was the price of…

Some Nigerians and armchair analysts are often quick to criticise the Federal Government for perceived shortcomings in security, highlighting isolated incidents such as kidnappings, improvised explosive devices, suicide bombings, and attacks in parts of the country. Such perceptions, however, tend to downplay and discount the heroic exploits of members of the Nigerian armed forces, saddled with the responsibility of countering the evil machinations of God-forsaken non-state actors, who operate like guerrillas.   My position is reinforced by the security reports I receive daily from Zagazola Makama, a journalist who has…

When the dust finally settles on the streets of Osogbo, Iwo, and Ile-Ife, the people of Osun aren’t going to be talking about how well a politician can dance or how many flashy slogans were printed on billboards. They are going to be talking about the weight of their pockets and the emptiness of their stomachs. In the high-stakes world of real-life politics, elections are rarely just about policy manuals and manifestos; they are a deep-seated reflection of the bond between the leader and the led. When that bond frays…

“Even a corpse put in a coffin will defeat Tinubu in 2027.” ADC chieftain and northern politician, Buba Galadima, gave that promise at the ADC convention last Tuesday. He was wrong. The corpse, the coffin and the carpenter will be buried by Hurricane Tinubu in the election of next year, unless…   Unless what?   Unless they remember that he is Jagaban Borgu and are ready to pay the price in full. Unless those who want to stop the chief warrior understand that noise is not power; that unity and…

The prevailing security discourse in Northern Nigeria frequently employs the term “banditry” to describe a complex web of rural violence. This article argues that such terminology constitutes a significant category error, trivializing a crisis that is fundamentally a low-intensity, non-state civil conflict. By reframing this insecurity within the context of radical land and tenure reform, the author posits that the violence is a symptom of structural contradictions in the agrarian economy. Through an analysis of factor dislocation, land, labour, and capital, and the reordering of agrarian class relations, this paper…

In a strategic move to reform fiscal governance and enhance institutional efficacy, the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) has accelerated a reform agenda centered on innovation, sustainability, and results-based budgeting. This initiative gained significant momentum following the conclusion of the 2025 Management Retreat in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Hosted in collaboration with a leading independent think tank specializing in African public financial management (PFM) and development policy, the engagement emphasized Nigeria’s commitment to aligning its sovereign budgeting systems with global best practices.   Expert-Led Collaborative Governance: The retreat was…

I have severally confessed my love for the South African literature. I fell in love with it early in life while gobbling up narratives of heroic travails of liberation struggle fighters, represented in the works of Mazisi Kunene, Ezekiel Mphalele, Peter Abrahams, Alf Wannenburg, Alan Paton, Alex La Guma and many others. I must have read La Guma’s A Walk In The Night and virtually all his works innumerable times. Of the lot, one South African author whose works equally spellbound me is Can Themba, perhaps because of the self-inflicted…

Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman- Ibrahim is the current Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, a known driver and protagonist of the Renewed Hope Agenda, RHA of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Renewed Hope Initiative, RHI of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s first Lady and wife of the President .   In aligning with the two notable Agendas and as member of the think tank of the present administration as a cabinet member, Imaan who was the first female Minister of State , Police Affairs and later the current portfolio, was at…

The current state of what passes for “activism” captures the dilemma and dysfunction of an underperforming post-colonial state. Nigeria once possessed a robust tradition of advocacy. This legacy is unambiguously illustrated by the November 18, 1949, Iva Valley massacre in Enugu, where miners were cut down simply for demanding labour conditions consistent with human dignity. The Iva Valley massacre – carried out under British watch – constitutes a war crime. Consequently, the British government must provide reparations, as it did for Kenya’s Mau Mau fighters.   Unlike today’s “come-raids”, Nigeria…