I want this on record: I am opposed to the ruga racket. And my misgivings have nothing to do with the conspiracy theories on Islamisation and Fulanisation. I call it a “racket” because that is exactly what it is. I don’t understand the indecent haste by civil servants in the ministry of agriculture and rural development to award multi-billion contracts [...]
One flaw that detracts from President Buhari’s strengths is tardiness; especially, his dilatory response to matters of importance. This is where an appreciable weakness of the president lies. And most times, the response or actions that follow the intermissions cannot justify the gnawing wait. For example, why wait until July to reappoint the same aides when that could have been done [...]
Two things the Osun and Kano state governorship elections have in common: they didn't end on the first ballot; candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) carried the day after trailing their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts in the first round.Another issue to consider in both elections is the violence that marred the process. Supporters of the opposition were [...]
The Federal Government’s decision to suspend implementation of the proposal to upgrade the conditions of the cattle herding and rearing communities and integrate them into the overall National Livestock plan of the country, affords us the opportunity to take a look into the issue detached from all the hiatus accompanying it.Did the government conceive it as a measure to solve [...]
I know many westerners who will die for their dogs and cats, but who don’t care if the neighbor next door would starve to death. When I went for a Masters Degree in London in 2005, my world-be neighbor at 4, Crossfield Avenue, Swiss Cottage, David Cooke, came to me on my first day at that apartment and said “Hey, [...]
Today is exactly 35 days since Buhari was inaugurated for a second term in office. It is also exactly 127 days (more than four months) since the President was presented a Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission after being declared the winner of the presidential election conducted on February 23 2019. Since Buhari has spent over a [...]
Three days after the video where Mrs Busola Dakolo, accused Senior Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, Biodun Fatoyinbo of defiling her at 16, Premium Times, a leading online newspaper in Nigeria, published a story alleging that Habeebulah Abdulrahman, an Ede, Osun State-based Islamic cleric, had defiled a 16-year-old pupil of his qur’anic school.Although the cleric insisted in an [...]
Busola Dakolo has a cousin she has never met and might never even meet. They don’t share blood ties, of course. But like tens of hundreds of victims of sexual abuse, there’s a common thread of grief that binds in a way that only those who feel it know.Since last week, we have been caught in the throes of the [...]
The Nigerian polity has been on analytical overdrive on the issue of settlement of herders since January 2018 when Audu Ogbe, the minister of agriculture and rural development, announced a policy to carve out “cattle colonies” in 16 states. Governors of states such as Kogi and Plateau, who had initially expressed interest pulled out as the social and political toxicity [...]
The election into office of Engineer Seyi Makinde as Governor of Oyo State was a by a stroke of luck. His supporters may argue otherwise and attributed his victory to hard work. Now in power, he is trading with populism. Before his election, Oyo state had been a domain of the progressive. At the initial stage, not many thought he [...]
