Category: Opinion

84-year-old renowned Belgian painter and writer, Erik Pervernagie, says: “People die from lack of shared empathy and affinity. By establishing social connectedness, we give hope a chance and the other can become heaven (“Le ciel c’est l’autre”). No institution has been so disparaged and stigmatised as the Nigeria Police. It is treated with so much contempt and neither appreciated nor celebrated. Rather, anything bad or despicable is attributed to the police. An average policeman is held in utmost and never enjoys any empathy or affinity from most Nigerians. Although the…

The audience at the 1903 (third year) lecture of the Royal African Society in London listened with rapt attention as African nationalist, Dr. Edward Blyden, took them back to antiquity when “the most enlightened nations of Greece, Asia, and Egypt” held the opinion that “God revealed himself only in Africa.” Great men of that period, including Alexander the Great, rushed to the great oracle of Africa to drop offerings and “learn the will of God.” A few centuries after that epoch, Blyden lamented, Africa, the “first home of God” where…

When it was time to play denigrating politics, Chief SLA Akintola, premier of the Western Region, was not one to shy away from it. The Ondo Province of the Region once came under his lacerating tongue. When it was time to take a swipe at the likes of renowned economist, Professor Sam Aluko, who hailed from the Ekiti part of the Province, Akintola had the right innuendo to singe his flesh. The Province was busy producing all manner of birds, in the name of academics, said the Premier – with…

In a world where virtually every news item that emanates from Nigeria is of depressing cases of bloodshed, banditry, government’s sleazy insensitivity and all-what-ought-nots, when news about Nigerians who go outside the perceptional loop flow in, they do the reverse. One that hit the airwave last weekend was that of Nigerian professor, political scientist, and anthropologist, Wale Adebanwi, who bagged the 2024 edition of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. The fellowship is usually awarded on the awardee’s trajectory of prior career achievement and exceptional promise. Adebanwi is the Presidential Penn Compact…

Whether real or imagined, none of the metonyms for “Lagos boy” is complimentary. The “Lagos boy” moniker once came up in the late 1980s. Commodore Olabode George, then Military Governor of Ondo State, had just been removed from office after spending two years. The African Concord magazine then did a post-mortem of his turbulent rule. Newly purchased boats for the coastal part of the state were alleged to be second-hand. By then, for analysts writing about the George years, rigor-mortis hadn’t set on another uproarious component of his time in…

Amid economic challenges worsened by changing oil prices and COVID-19, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has recognized the critical need for innovative revenue generation methods. Therefore, FIRS has introduced TaxPro Max as a solution to address Nigeria’s critical revenue problems.     The introduction of an input VAT credit mechanism and the modification of the sales adjustment process are among the key changes implemented by FIRS. The input VAT credit mechanism mandates suppliers to remit VAT collected from customers using a new sales schedule format, while the sales adjustment…

Have you been wondering why things are not the way they used to be between you and your wife? Is she giving you cold shoulders instead of warmth? Hugging her pillows instead of you? Ah, you should worry. Do you have more one-word answers from her instead of full sensible sentences? She spends more time on the phone talking to people than you, her husband. She spends more time on Netflix, African Magic and Zee World than she does with you. She sits with the children in their room while…

In the course of the week, I had cause to be at the Akure, Ondo State-home of the Afenifere Leader, Reuben Fasoranti, and I saw modesty in its raw form. From Fasoranti’s symbolic bungalow which has played host to presidents, governors and other crème-de-la-crème of the society in their monstrous agbada or Babarigas, to the information gleaned from Nigerians in and around his residence, yours sincerely couldn’t stop marveling at the Spartan lifestyle of this 97-year-old Awoist. Anyway, that’s a story for another day! Well, the threatening truth is that…

Barrister Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), is a politician who hugs the limelight effortlessly. Unlike most politicians occupying public office who struggle, and most times conjure imaginary scenarios to be noticed, Wike, by his performances, actions, and comments is always in the news. Though this inclination sometimes soaked him in controversies but he has standout as one of the notable politicians in the fourth republic. He is a performer, great one at that. Some people complain about his style and comportment but one very enduring…