On 18 January 2015, Nigeria's Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke announced a fuel price reduction that took the retail cost from ₦97 to ₦87 and explained that the price drop was occasioned by the drop in crude oil prices in the international market. An incensed Nigerian public that had set high standards for itself…

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.’” - Minnie Louise Haskins We could say that the pandemic of 2020…

In the modern nation-state, the police typically handle internal security concerns while the military are responsible for protecting a country's territory, citizens, and interests from attacks from hostile foreign parties. However, the security challenges in many African countries have evolved in quite complex ways for their current police to be able to handle. Traditionally, an…

I had a discussion with someone yesterday that brings to my mind the nature, to some extent, of the damage that the current Japa wave is doing. This time, not to the body-corporate Nigeria, I've discussed that in some form here, and I've done a Twitter thread on the effects on the middle class, who…

It has been well acknowledged that primary school education is the foundation of individual and national development. The skills learned at that level are the base on which the capacity for future economic productivity is built.

During one of my many discussions of Igbo politics with Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, one of those people I look up to a lot, he said something poignant. He said, “Cheta, you speak of these things like you are expecting an ideal. You cannot have an impact among your people until you accept them as what they…

I'd like to begin this by saying something important: the attack on Ukraine is immoral and wicked, and deserves all the uproar that has accompanied it from wherever. Sadly, that is about where it will get. The world of geopolitics is not a moral place, and to quote the Athenians when they sent an ultimatum…

Back in the days when Roman legions marched across the earth and imposed the will of the Emperor on one and all, a concept emerged, first mooted by the prolific consul, Cicero. The concept was simple, “Civis Romanus sum.” I am a Roman citizen. Permit me to tell five stories, four happy, and one depressing.…

A year ago today, at least 44 people were killed in nine separate incidents around the country, most infamously at least nine killed at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos. One year on and justice still eludes the peaceful protesters who were brutally cut down. It is a bitter irony that the very security services…

The Federal Inland Revenue Service, on behalf of Nigeria’s federal government, has been locked in a legal tussle with the Rivers and Lagos state governments over the collection of value-added tax. In the last few minutes, a VAT collection Bill, similar to the aforementioned two states, has passed the second reading in the Ogun State House of Assembly. It is going to become a law.

On Tuesday, 26 March 2019, a police Deputy Superintendent, Godwin Oshiogbuwe, was kidnapped from a checkpoint along the Ubiaja-Ewohimi-Agbor road by unknown gunmen. His body was found the next day by a police tactical team at about 1640 hours. It had been mutilated, and his gun had been taken away. To my knowledge, none of…

It’s been just over a month since the chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCT) Danladi Umar was caught on camera physically victimising a security guard at a shopping complex. Mr Umar’s response was to say that the incident was an aggressive act performed against him by “Biafrans” even though he was the aggressor…