Category: Opinion

The recent realignment in the UK – where figures like Robert Jenrick are “uniting the right” – proves the “defection bug” is no longer a uniquely Nigerian phenomenon. It speaks to a global volatility where traditional loyalties are being tested against the need for results. For many Nigerians, this shift isn’t about lack of principle; it is about self-preservation. In a system where the Exclusive Legislative List still centralizes power, swimming against the tide has not only lost its authentic ring, it is politically unwise. Therefore, to seek a new…

A leader’s stumble is perhaps the easiest political moment to interpret and the cheapest. It demands no study of fiscal constraints, no reading of monetary transmission, no understanding of inflation dynamics, and no patience for reform sequencing. It is the politics of the eye: quick, viral, and often cruel. But philosophy begins where spectacle ends.   The first truth is basic: to be human is to be fragile. The wisest political traditions never promised invulnerability. They insisted instead that dignity lies not in the absence of weakness, but in the…

There are moments in a nation’s life when institutions are reminded—quietly but unmistakably—that time does not negotiate with comfort. Nigeria’s Senate, returning from the conviviality of Christmas recess and New Year reflection to the discipline of plenary, has arrived at such a moment. The period of acclimatization has passed. The era of testing intentions is over. What remains is a phase in which time asserts itself, when the calendar ceases to be a backdrop and becomes an active force in governance. When the President of the Senate, Godswill Obot Akpabio,…

Lest I forget to spotlight the significance of a memory. On Monday, 24th of November 2025, the Centre for Crisis Communication – a non-governmental organisation established 10 years ago to provide crisis information and communication management on national crisis, and offer knowledge-sharing services to the Nigerian security sector agencies – invited me to speak on “Strengthening Institutional and Media Capacity for Digital Crisis Communication”. The event took place at the National Defence College, Abuja.   The focus was to swivel discourses on leveraging emerging technologies to transform crisis communication but…

Today, in a moment of childlike curiosity, I found myself reading about a historical figure, Moses Orimolade, the founder of the Cherubim & Seraphim Church. What emerged was the portrait of a life rich in experience, wonder, and accounts of the miraculous, defining cosmic encounters between a mysteriously born Christian prophet and an entrenched community of idol worshippers in a place called Ikare, in what is now South West Nigeria. From those beginnings, the Cherubim and Seraphim Church movement took root. It spread across the country, carrying with it an…

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.   All praise is due to Allah, the Owner of all things. We thank Him, we seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from our bad deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship in truth except Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon…

The Arbiter A few days ago, I woke in the night, anxious and checking the news, half-expecting America and Israel to have attacked Iran. Given this tension, the central issue is the longstanding American-Israeli effort to destabilise Iran. Even though it cannot be exhausted in one article, I’d like you to come along as we look over the underlying hostility, the motives behind American and Israeli actions, and why both countries believe only a fractured, weakened Iran will serve their interests. The apparent lowering of tensions and talk of de-escalation…

In perhaps his most famous song after dying in a car crash in 1971, Cardinal Rex Lawson, Kalabari highlife soulful singer of the 1960s Nigeria, would seem to be passing a deeply emotive message to both the Adeleke and Labinjoh families. In a deeply philosophical song sung in Kalabari, a riverine tribe of Rivers State, Rex used the track, So Ala Temen, to preach equality of creation, irrespective of class or wealth. God made the rich – So ala temen; both wealth – ala wolo ma – and poverty/lowliness –…

Women, we do all kinds of things, for love, for men. Some of those things are smart, many are stupid. One of the stupidest ones, or should I call it strangest, is women killing themselves because their men are mean cheating, lying sons of Adam. Why should a woman die because she is in a bad relationship? Why will a woman commit suicide because her husband’s ‘dangling modifier’ knows no boundaries? Why should a wife who has stomached her husband’s indiscretions for years suddenly sum up her life and decide…

The recent protest staged by the Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), supported by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other unions at the Lagos office of NAFDAC, over the ban on alcoholic sachet drinks, is not only unfortunate but deeply disturbing. It represents a calculated attempt to place profit above public health, morality, and national wellbeing. The ban on sachet and small-sized alcoholic beverages is a just, timely, and morally sound policy that aligns with both public health realities and divine guidance. Any resistance to it no matter…