Author: Kazeem Akintunde

IN the next 48 hours, we should be saying our final goodbye to the year 2024. It has been one hell of a journey navigating through the year for most Nigerians. Many have died, millions of others are struggling to keep their heads above water. Still, we should give thanks to God that we survived and are still counted amongst the living. Now is the time to do a postmortem on the year so that we can all plan ahead for the new year. What are those things we did that made the year so tough for many? What could…

IT was meant to be a joyous occasion, a day to give back to the less privileged and put smiles on the faces of the downtrodden for the Christmas season. But it ended in tragedy. Up till now, the aftermath is still very visible on the faces of many in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Distraught parents who have lost their loved ones are still searching for an answer; those whose children are still in the hospitals, daily tending to their injuries. What was a highly-anticipated Christmas now looks very bleak. In the spirit of giving back to the society…

I HAVE had two close encounters with the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi ll. The first was in Saudi Araba, during the 2015 hajj, and the second was in Kaduna, in 2021. The Saudi Arabia meeting was when he was appointed as the Amirul Hajj (leader of delegation) for the year’s hajj. That was few months after he was appointed as the Emir of Kano by the former Governor of the state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Sanusi, without many of his aides and hangers on, wore a simple white Jellabiya, but still looked regal in his carriage. By then, he had…

ALIU Adams Oshiomhole, needs no introduction in Nigeria’s politics. From his days as a labour leader, after being elected President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), to his days as a politician, starting as the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, (APC), and as a two-time Governor of Edo State and now as a Senator representing Edo North in the Senate, Oshiomhole is an old war-horse who calls a spade by no other name. On Monday last week, he propounded a theory that is worth considering by those in the ivory towers. Speaking during a forum on Local Government…

GOVERNOR Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has invited Minister of Works, Dave Umahi and his counterpart in Aviation, Festus Keyamo, to Osun State on December 16, to lay the foundation of a brand-new airport for the state to be sited at Ede. For those who may not know, Ede is where Adeleke hails from. That invitation is already a subject of serious political tension in the state, as a former Governor of the State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, had, in 2012, laid the foundation for an airport for the state, but in Ido-Osun. In fact, works has already started at the proposed…

IF you are a resident of Lagos and you have not been to Ikeja GRA of recent, please you need to pay a visit. The entire landscape has been turned into a giant construction site. The millionaires of yesteryears that have property in that sprawling neighbourhood are now being quietly displaced by the billionaires of today’s world, the wealth of many of whom one can’t easily explain the source. Although a good number of those who built most of those properties are long dead, those who inherited the ‘colonial houses’ have no issue selling them to the highest bidder. Imagine…

A SHORT video trended on social media last week of Nigerian Soldiers providing security for farmers as they harvested beans on their farms. Although less than 30 seconds long, the video speaks to the terrible state of insecurity in Nigeria. This is not the right time to be a farmer in Nigeria. As a farmer, you are confounded with different layers of challenges on a daily basis; from getting cheap and affordable fertilizer from those in government to being stuck in the age-long conflict between farmers and herders. You would have cleared the field, planted, watered and nurtured your farm…

THERE is an ongoing war for the soul of Nigeria’s oil sector. The war is not for the faint hearted. It is one war that has the potential to either make or mar Nigeria’s progress towards becoming a self-reliant country, as well as the energy hub of Africa, and even the world. It is a war between Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company and other players in the oil and gas sector. In Nigeria, Dangote is not a small fry that can be tossed around by anybody. However, since the completion of his $20 billion refinery, he…

CITIZENS of the United States of America, USA, will go to the polls on Tuesday, November 5th to elect the 47th president for their country. With nearly 186.5 million Americans eligible to vote tomorrow, and more than 65 per cent of that number expected to cast their ballots, the outcome of tomorrow’s election is of major concern to the entire world, being one of the super powers in world affairs. Whoever emerges the 47th President of the United States would have significant consequences on what would happen the world over, including the ongoing war in Gaza, the war between Israel…

NIGERIAN Governors could be described as a special breed. Special in the sense that they listen and follow whatever comes to their heads without thinking it through. Just last June, when the federal government was negotiating a new minimum wage with labour leaders in the country, they came out with a statement that the N60,000 then proposed by the federal government’s negotiation team was dead on arrival as they won’t be able to pay such amount of money to their workers at the state level. The Governors, through their body, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), in a statement signed by…

ELECTRICITY generation, transmission and distribution has now become rocket science for us in Nigeria. This is because in spite of billions of Naira spent on the power sector in the last two decades, we are still generating darkness and distributing misery to households and businesses. Just last week, the National Power grid collapsed thrice. The first collapse was recorded at exactly 6.58 pm, when power generation dropped to zero megawatts, throwing homes and businesses into complete darkness. Few hours later, the grid came up and some parts of the country were lucky to get electricity supply. Not long after, the…

THE World Health Organization, in 1992, set aside October 10th of every year as the World Mental Health Day. The date was chosen to create awareness about the salient issues around mental health. The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Mental Health At Work’, picked to highlight the importance of mental health in the workplace. It is estimated that at least 15 to 20 per cent of working adults will experience one form of mental health challenge or the other. This translates to roughly one in five adults in the workplace. Mental health is an important aspect of a person…

GOOD day sir! I have decided to write you this open letter after one of your aides, Bayo Onanuga, told Nigerians last week that you are proceeding on a two weeks annual leave to the United Kingdom. As a leader that has been working ‘assiduously’ in the last 17 months to better the lot of your people, you deserve to have some rest. Even at that, Onanuga told us that the two weeks period would be a working vacation and that it would serve as a retreat for you to reflect on your administration’s economic reforms. The second leg of…

THERE has been no love lost between Bello Matawalle, former Governor of Zamfara state, who is presently the Minister of State for Defence in the administration of President Bola Tinubu, and the man who took over from him, Dauda Lawal. To those who may not know the nitty-gritty of their tiff, which many may attribute to their different political orientations as they both belong to two different political parties – Matawalle is a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), while Lawal is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and they both got elected on the platforms of…

THE World Health Assembly, with the adoption of resolution WHA 72.6, in 2019, set aside September 17 of every year to be observed as the World Patient Safety Day. On that date, the global body recognizes the urgent need for a broad-based effort at reducing errors in medical diagnosis and treatment by medical doctors and other health workers, most of whom, sadly, lead to the death of patients. This year’s theme was ‘Get It Right, Make It Safe’, which some other health organizations expanded to say ‘The right diagnosis at the right time, as basis for safe and effective health…

IN the last few days, news and pictures from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, have been heart-rendering due to the large-scale destruction recorded in the town as a result of flooding as well as the socio-economic impact of the flood on the hapless residents who are just breathing a sigh of relief from the onslaught of the terrorist group, – Boko Haram. There are tales of mothers and children still missing, while in some cases, entire families have been wiped out. Even many survivors are now battling with hunger and deprivation as they are left with absolutely nothing. Most residents…

WHEN oil was discovered in Oloibiri, a small fishing community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, in 1956, those living in the community believed that their community and personal life would witness a 360-degree turn around for good. Their joy knew no bounds as the community soon became a tourist attraction site, hosting visitors from every part of the country. Soon enough, commercial activities picked up within the community. Crude oil, the new gold, was in the bowel of their land, and they hoped, it would soon translate into money in their pockets and development of their community.…

“Hunger is the cry of a god and two gods do the humans worship – the head and the stomach …We know the body will survive without head Sustenance, but the Stomach, the god that rumbles and thunders when sacrifice is late, this God cannot be slighted” – Wole Soyinka GRACE Udeme Emmanuel, at 22 years of age, is already a mother of four children. She got pregnant at the age of 16 while in SS1 and typical of most angry parents, she was sent away. She took up residence with the man that got her pregnant. Inadvertently, she became…

MANY Nigerians were aghast when a Chinese company seized three Presidential Jets belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria in France while on a routine maintenance in their bid to enforcing a court judgment against the Ogun State Government. Among the three jets seized by the company was a 15-year-old newly purchased Airbus A330-243 with registration number 5N-FGA bought at the cost of $100 million. However, in order for President Bola Tinubu not to miss a scheduled trip to France and take a night bus to Paris, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Company Limited, as a measure of goodwill, decided to release…

FACEBOOK, a popular social media networking site in Nigeria, now known as Meta, on July 1st, announced that it would start paying money to skit makers, content creators and social media influencers with more than 5,000 followers. Mark Zukerberg is the owner of Facebook, which he renamed Meta, after he bought the company in 2021. Instagram and WhatsApp, two other social media networking sites are also owned by him. Zukerberg makes huge amount of money from the three media platforms through advertisements, and he gives back part of the money to those with large followers who create content that get…