Category: Opinion

Making of an Aláàfin: Bribe or gods? By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

In a viral video, Professor Wande Abimbola, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, and the Awise of Yorubaland – head of all Ifa oracle diviners – threw a bombshell. In it, he affirmed that the Oyo State government contacted him on the divination process leading to the nomination of a new Aláàfin of Oyo. Abimbola, who hails from Oyo town, would seem to have ignited a major earthquake which struck Yorubaland and its system of choosing kings. In its strike, the earthquake disemboweled dirt…

Can Olukoyede renew our faith in the EFCC?,by Simon Kolawole

Emporium Reporters

I woke up to a WhatsApp broadcast the other day. It was a letter purportedly from the United Nations to Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In the letter dated January 1, 2024, the UN supposedly expressed appreciation to the EFCC for recovering the €2 billion allegedly stolen by Mr. André de Ruyter, former CEO of Eskom, the South African electricity company. The UN apparently wanted to use the money to build a solar farm in Namibia.   I found the letter too good…

Deadly Wish, By Funke Egbemode

Emporium Reporters

Tinu, Tola, and Rita have been friends for about 20 years. They all started small, but God has been kind to them. Their marriages are still intact too. So, we can safely say that they are lucky or blessed. That is not to say they have not had seasons that looked like God was not on their side. Tinu lost two precious pregnancies. Rita lost one of two sons, and Tola had to wait 10 years for a second child. As for their marriages, the storms came. Rita’s husband went…

Adedeji: Happy 47th birthday to a game-changer By abiodun KOMOLAFE

Emporium Reporters

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr. Zacch Adedeji, should consider himself lucky because not all persons are blessed with opportunities to become game-changers. o, Happy Birthday to the man on whose shoulders so much is riding. Adedeji’s demonstrated track-record and managerial capacity motivated a far-sighted President Bola Tinubu to give him a post which is now a critical national assignment. The current post is actually make-or-break! FIRS will lead the charge of the brigade to reboot the Nigerian economy from stagnation to a production-led, modern…

Tax Reform Bills and the economic outlook for 2025 By abiodun KOMOLAFE

Emporium Reporters

The Year 2024 has been flogged to death! With 2025 now underway, it’s clear that this year will be crucial for Nigeria and Nigerians. To ensure a game-changing year, the government must develop a comprehensive framework to address the economic, social and political challenges ahead. To begin with, President Bola Tinubu should leverage his political expertise to facilitate a consensus-driven approach to the Tax Reform Bills currently before the National Assembly. This requires negotiating with regional stakeholders, addressing politically-driven concerns, and finding common ground to ensure the Bills’ successful passage.…

What you might expect in 2025, By Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

This is the fifth in my series of annual forecasts. For a part-time Nostradamus, my record has been above average. The forecasts usually come earlier, in the last week of December. Yet, the potency of this edition is not diminished by the delay.   I made a particularly catastrophic forecast for last year, which has left a puree of tomatoes on my face and those of a significant segment of the liberal press in the US, led by CNN: that President Joe Biden would defeat Donald Trump. That didn’t happen—not…

EBUBE MUONSO, FAKE PROPHETS AND INSECURITY By Law Mefor, PhD

Emporium Reporters

The new wave of insecurity in Anambra in particular and the South East has its roots in preaching wealth without work championed by the likes of Fr. Emmanuel Obimma, aka Ebube Muonso. They are merchants of fake miracles and fake prophecies who, for decades, have taught our youths to believe they can become wealthy and great without work, perseverance, and morality, all vital virtues for which Ndigbo were reputed in the past. Such virtues that accounted for the outstanding successes of Ndi Anambra and Ndigbo in general are now assailed…

The Unending Revenue Sharing War ,by Simon Kolawole

Emporium Reporters

Do you know that Jigawa can become the richest state in Nigeria? Don’t laugh at me and say “this guy has started again”. I will explain myself, but my central point remains that we have a mental block when it comes to understanding the wealth of a state. We have limited it to mineral resources and the sharing of the contents of the federation account by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). We downplay many potential sources of revenue staring us in the face every day of the week and…

My Man of the Year By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

The door of life is binary; it opens either ways, inwards or outwards. So goes an age-long wisdom. When the Thisday newspaper, on January 1, 2025, announced President Bola Tinubu as its Man of the Year pick, emotions of Nigerians ran riot. Was that decision a product of editorial science or newspaper shamanism? Nigerians asked. To many, the newspaper’s editors must have meandered into some kind of trance, communed with with some unseen spirits and emerged therefrom with their odd pick. To others, Thisday hit the bull’s eye.   Suffering…

The tiff between me and my friend, Umar Iliya Damagum, by Hassan Gimba

Emporium Reporters

For those who may not know, considering that I am a journalist and he is a politician, the first time I knew Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, the Acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was in 1977, some 48 years ago. When God brought us together at Government College Maiduguri, we were both teenagers, eager and ready to dive headlong into the world of adventure. We wanted to survey the world, savour its mysteries, learn from the experience it would offer us, become better humans, and collect the…