Tag: Festus Adedayo

Tinubu and ghosts of fuel scarcity, new Naira notes By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

In a piece I wrote entitled A O M’erin J’oba At Tinubu’s Colloquium (April 1, 2018) I warned that the man who has now become the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was making a strategic mistake in assuming that Buhari loved him. Or that he would probably want to relinquish power to him. Using a famous folklore rendered as tale told by the moonlight in traditional African Yoruba, but which Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Minister of Works and folklorist/writer, Joseph Odunjo, brought into vivid perspective…

Buhari, Emefiele’s ‘buga’ handshake, By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

This week, there will be a stampede in Nigeria. Stampede for the new Nigerian currencies. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) policy of currency change has been variously lauded for its power to purge the system of slush funds warehoused for election purposes. However, its symptom as a vengeful political weapon manifests as preparations towards the January 31 expiration of old notes reach their crescendo. This reveals the rump of this very shoddy policy. The new Naira notes are nowhere in circulation. They are however scattered at weekend party venues…

The god of Nyesom Wike By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

Last week, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike and his entourage were in Ahoada area of the State, on a mission to flag-off a road construction. Then a drama was staged. It was skillfully perfumed by a sweet-smelling fragrance which disguised its heretics. As the governor sat to the panoply of songs and fawning political chicanery often entertained visiting political bigwigs with, an unnamed traditional ruler sauntered out to speak. You would think it was a typical narrative at a religious gathering where congregants are regaled with ludicrous and unverifiable claims.…

Murder so cruel By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

The murders of Kehinde and Bukola Fatinoye, a few hours after the new year, have made me pensive and downcast since the news broke. That dastardly murder is one event of 2023 that throws me into spasms whenever my mind reflects on it. Unable to reconcile the gravity of this evil with the aesthetic beauty of life as God’s creation, this murder made me dust up my handbooks on the philosophy of evil and wickedness. I wanted a clue as to why this horror happened and why our world’s most…

What is new about New Year 2023? By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

So that mythical Nigerian year, 2023, is here at last? For Nigerians, 2023 is not just a year of newness as all years represent for mankind. It is a year with gross implications; political, economic and social. It is a year that is at once dreaded, expected, venerated and evokes apprehension, as well as a feeling of déjà vu across board. It is a year of consequence to our existence as a people. A year that has been romanticised as the year of the Nigerian becoming, many analysts have even…

Emefiele’s terrorism mess By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

If you read God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican, you would have a whiff of understanding of the battle that assails and the nature of the assailants of Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor. God’s Bankers, written by Gerald Posner, is an expose on the Papacy and the Holy See, known to be the world’s biggest and the most impregnable religious institution ever. Posner, reputed to be a “master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct,” conducted a deep-seated investigation which lasted nine years,…

Fabowale’s memoir By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

In 1995 when I came to Ibadan to practice full time journalism, one of the weavers of words the journalism corpus at the time held in high esteem was Yinka Fabowale, then of The Guardian. Fabowale’s engaging prose was always a delight and when he penned features with those engaging words, they were unputdownable. Over the years, Fabowale has evolved into a veteran and the knowledge scooped over the decades needed to be codified into a well of information for aspiring and upcoming journalists. According to the memoir’s publishers, “the…

Onanuga, Alake And Obaigbena At Thessalonica by Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

To many, the recent virulent attacks and counter attacks by top Nigerian journalists, served a la carte to the world in the last two weeks, are indications of an autumn for journalism practice in Nigeria. Nigerians have thus been treated to a disgraceful brew of damaging and ignoble exchanges from these media warlords. The public spat has made Nigerians to call to question the integrity of their media practitioners. To them, the media space, in the name of politics, has become a hostile jungle, revealing the patent biases of its…

What Did Osun State Buy With N407 Billion? By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

When I was told that Osun State’s debt stock was N407billion, I asked my friends from that state what they bought that sold them to that farm of bankruptcy. I had reservations for the personality of the new governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke. I felt that Yorubaland does not deserve his kind of Owambe carriage in leadership. But, as I wrote earlier, I raised my hands up in surrender the day Osun people’s votes for him were announced to be in tomes. It was my own way of…

Ariwoola’s raw baptism By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, got a raw baptism from politicians recently. In a statement attributed to him which went viral and even attracted the excoriation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction of presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the CJN was credited with having said that he was happy that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State was among the five governors of the party loyal to Wike. For those rustling the rubble for dynamites with which to destroy their political opponents, the CJN’s alleged statement was a perfect…