Recently, public discourse has been inundated by hollow polemics—epitomized by commentaries such as Sufuyan Ojeifo’s jaundice and illusionary critique—attempting to frame the monumental environmental challenge of the Benin stormwater project as an indictment of Governor Monday Okpebholo’s administration. This posture of cynical detachment is not merely banal; it is...
OPINION
The recent arrest of five suspected kidnappers linked to the abduction of 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, alongside the arrest of fugitive Faisal Maina, represents a significant achievement by the Department of State Services (DSS) and a welcome development in Nigeria’s fight against insecurity. Beyond the...
The annual ritual of the opening of the judicial year at Nigeria’s Supreme Court is an occasion for pomp, ceremony, and celebration. It usually marks the admission of a new set of lawyers into the sequined ranks of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SANs). This year, 68 made the cut....
“I have gathered that concerned members of the PDP and Accord are poised to approach the courts to seek judicial determination of the legality and constitutionality of chieftains of their respective parties being drafted into the ruling APC’s presidential campaign council, without the requisite authorisation of their parties. That...
Since 2011 when the administration of Governor Adams Oshiomhole embarked on the bold effort to curtail the perennial flooding in Benin metropolis through the Benin City Stormwater Project, it has continued to generate controversy. Whereas the motivation behind the project derived from the single request made to Oshiomhole by...
Nigeria’s renewed courtship of American investors in the mining sector deserves more than applause. It deserves scrutiny. On September 24, 2026, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake announced on X that Nigeria and the United States had signed a framework agreement on mining investment. He said it was...
The Federal Government’s announcement that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Retail will temporarily forgo its petrol retail profit margin and sell fuel at cost has reopened one of Nigeria’s most contentious economic and political debates: Is petrol subsidy gradually returning? The government has been categorical that it is...
*PREAMBLE* The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held its 10th Annual Conference on October 7 and 8, 2026 at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, with the theme: *”2027 Elections: Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities.”* The conference was chaired by Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, former President of...
Nigeria’s President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was at his parliamentary diplomacy best at the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania, on Friday, 9 October 2026. He reached deep into his parliamentary tool kit to muster support for Mr. Milton Dick, Speaker of Australia’s House of...
Nearly 20 years ago, while stumping for his party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, out-going president, Olusegun Obasanjo, decided to confront head-on morbid rumours about the health of his hand-picked successor. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, then governor of Katsina State and the president’s man for the job, was said to be...
Bala Mohammed’s candour: A lesson in statesmanship for the sour grapes opposition By OKOI OBONO-OBLA
Bala Mohammed’s candour: A lesson in statesmanship for the sour grapes opposition By OKOI OBONO-OBLA
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State deserves unreserved commendation for his rare candour and statesmanship. In an era where opposition politics in Nigeria has been reduced to perpetual wailing, cynicism and playing to the gallery, Bala Mohammed has risen above partisanship to speak truth to power in the most...
The news broke like wildfire, fanned by the November and December harmattan: 500-level Nursing students of Madonna University had been expelled and suspended over a TikTok video captioned, “No Sick Ooo, Na Gen Z Full Hospital.” The decision has since generated serious public concern, with lawyers, law students, and...
Flooding in Benin City is an existential, perennial problem. It does not discriminate. It ravages every nook and cranny of the state capital whenever there is a downpour. A colleague who works in Benin lamented last week that flood has taken over even the Government Reserved Area, GRA, where...
For years, digital entertainment and sports prediction platforms across Africa operated in a gray regulatory space. Rapid smartphone adoption and the widespread rollout of mobile money services caught many regional authorities unprepared. Early legislation, often drafted in the pre-internet era to oversee physical casinos and street-corner betting shops, could...
For generations, Nigerians have repeated the familiar saying: “A teacher’s reward is in heaven.” It is a phrase intended to celebrate the selflessness, patience and sacrifice of those who dedicate their lives to educating others. But in today’s Nigeria, the saying raises an uncomfortable question: Must a teacher’s reward...
. In many of Prof. Chinua Achebe’s novels, he used proverbs to deepen his message; for instance, “having the yam and the knife” means that someone has complete control, absolute power, or the total ability to decide how a resource or situation is handled.In Nigerian and West African contexts,...
I am honoured to chair this important gathering devoted to ethics and integrity. I commend Verbatim Magazine and its partners for doing something that Nigeria urgently needs: making integrity visible and making honour answerable to character. For too long, our national conversation on corruption has concentrated almost entirely on...
There is no debate about Nigeria’s power crisis. Millions still live on generators and inverters. Businesses run below capacity. Communities endure long outages. The national grid is fragile, and the gap between installed capacity and actual supply remains painfully wide. Managing Director of Leadership Newspapers and columnist, Azu Ishiekwene,...
What Happened to the Peace Accord?: A Memo to the National Peace Committee, By CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU
What Happened to the Peace Accord?: A Memo to the National Peace Committee, By CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU
As Nigeria marked 66 years of independence this past week, the Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Jarrett Tenebe, turned prayerful. Mr. Tenebe is not priest, pastor, or Imam. He claims to be a professional politician. Ordinarily, that should mean that he is interested...
There is a point at which a country’s electricity problem ceases to be merely an electricity problem. It becomes a problem of economic geography. Where can factories operate with confidence? Where can businesses plan beyond the next appearance of a generator? Where can hospitals, schools, technology companies, markets and...