Nigeria has one of the youngest populations in the world with a median age of 18 years 7 months, which means that we are the 20th youngest out of 230 countries in the latest rankings. Yesterday’s unemployment numbers published by the National Bureau of Statistics placed the unemployment rate among Nigeria’s 15-34-year-olds at 42.5%. For…

In the past few weeks, I have been on a round the country tour. A lot of it by road. I have spoken with people in all of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones. Lots of people. Let’s just say that attitudes have hardened. Nigeria is in for a really rough ride in the coming months and years.…

Nigeria is a country where irony comes to die. As Elnathan John, the author, regularly says, "You can't write satire for Nigeria, the country will always top your creativity." Thus it is that I feel a bit of deliciously hilarious irony when I see headlines about the man who illegally warmed the seat at the…

Yesterday a man was buried. Abba Kyari was, to many, the de facto president of Nigeria. Since his demise became public knowledge, there has been a deluge of praise for him, as well as criticism of course, which will always accompany the death of an influential figure. But something happened yesterday. There was a concerted…

During my last visit to the United States, I had a rather interesting discussion with my brother-in-law, about his experiences during his two-year job hunt post immigration. Each time he sent his CV to fellow Nigerians, they'd fail to help him. However, the moment he finally managed, despite all the odds to secure a decent…

Academia is meant to be a community concerned with the pursuit of research, education, and scholarship, and thrives on academic freedom and contestation of ideas. It is a community that’s expected to express its scholastic ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage. Such ideals are expected to dwell in an environment that breathes…

The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) recently beckoned on President Muhammadu Buhari to take steps to immediately nationalise telecommunications giant, MTN and other South Africans investments in the country.

There is an Igbo saying about when you wake up being your morning. It simply means that it is never too late to start. This, could be a good thing, as it engenders a resilient attitude that is not tapered by time.

Geopolitics is the study of the effects of geography) on politics and human relations, mainly the relationships between nations. To most people, the word “nation” refers to countries, but the study of geopolitics may also focus on relations between sub-national geopolitical entities, such as our geopolitical zones, or even our ethnic groups.

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." That means, "I am a Roman citizen." Cicero didn't live to see Rome become an empire,…

The Esan people of Edo State have a very interesting saying, “Ebalu alụ.” It simply means, “What we do is what we do.” I have seen this statement deployed to almost devastating effect in a funeral situation when the proverbial (and literal) village people were trying to extort money from a friend of mine (and his siblings) who were simply trying to bury their father...

This is the story of the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria. All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed…