Articles by Tonye Bakare
20 Apr
A disinformation campaign is targeting Nigeria's election regulators and supreme court judges, who will have to rule on claims of vote rigging following a presidential ballot marred by delays and fraud accusations.
1 Nov 2022
For many households in Nigeria, inflation is a mortal enemy. It eats deep into disposable income, depreciates spending power, forces lifestyle changes, and in some instances could lead to malnutrition, especially if it festers for too long.
17 Aug 2022
Three things came to mind the first time I watched the first installment of Samo Agbero’s If An Agbero Had a Diary: deft use of the Yoruba Language and its street slang, the hilarious names given to the people who populate Samo’s fictitious garaji, and the uncanny portrayal of local motor park politics. The person…
3 Apr 2022
When popular broadcaster Tracy ‘Suo’ Chapele finished her English and Literature degree programme at the University of Benin, she was not aware her career in broadcasting would be kick-started by her ability to speak the Nigerian Pidgin effortlessly. Chapele grew up speaking the Nigerian Pidgin. The language is widely spoken in Warri where she was…
13 Jan 2022
Nigeria said it will now have "direct access" to manage content on Twitter that violates Nigerian laws and Twitter community rules, as parts of the agreements reached between the social media platform and the West African country to lift the ban on Twitter operations. But sources said the "direct channel" does not necessarily mean the…
23 Nov 2021
Nigeria should end its expensive fuel subsidy regime within three to six months, the World Bank said on Tuesday. Reuters reported that the bank advised that the removal of the subsidy must be accompanied by "aggressive reform effort" that "could contribute more to growth than a sustained period of high oil prices." Africa's largest economy devotes…
16 Nov 2021
A judicial panel set up by the Lagos State Government in the wake of the #EndSARS protest that grounded the state in October 2020 said in a report it submitted to the government on Monday said that Nigerian troops massacred protesters. Nigerian troops on the evening of October 20, 2020, arrived at the Lekki toll plaza…
13 Jun 2021
Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey Sunday said "the people of Nigeria will lead bitcoin" despite the Nigerian authorities clamp down on the trading of cryptocurrencies. Dorsey's take was a direct reaction to an oped written by NFL star Russell Okung in Bitcoin Magazine. Okung, a Nigerian descendant and self-acclaimed Bitcoin proponent, advised Nigeria to…
12 Jun 2021
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed that his administration has lifted at least 10.5 million people out of poverty in the country in the last two years. Buhari also insisted the Nigerian government will pull 100 million of its current population out of poverty in 10 years. "In the last two years, we lifted 10.5…
8 Jun 2021
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group Tuesday said the "temporary" suspension of Twitter in the country will affect its economic recovery negatively. Nigerian authorities suspended Twitter last week after the platform deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari it considered "abusive". But the government said it suspended the platform because of a "litany of problems". The…
18 May 2021
A senior special assistant to Ogun State governor has been arrested in the United State for wire fraud, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Monday. Abidemi Rufai was arrested at the JFK Airport in New York on his way out of the US and has appeared before a court on May…
16 May 2021
In the weeks leading to Ramadan, Nigeria was not exactly in a good place. Multiple security challenges, spiking inflation that puts pressure on purchasing power and a downer on lifestyle, rising secessionist agitations riding on the backs of polarising rhetorics, and a pervasive air of retrogression characterised many discourses. For many Muslims, it was a…