Author: Tope Ajayi

WHAT was widely touted as a potential seismic shift in Nigeria’s political terrain turned out to be a mere political puff off smoke. For weeks, a band of aggrieved and wandering politicians had been climbing every available rooftop, megaphone in hand, vowing to dethrone President Bola Tinubu come 2027. Not because the man is doing a terrible job on the saddle. Not because the economy has worsened or security has completely collapsed. No. Just because they missed out on the appurtenances of power and cannot seem to function without the title “Your Excellency.” Two years into his presidency, Bola Tinubu…

THERE is a particular kind of silence that greets progress in Nigeria—when food prices fall, inflation slows, the country is positively recognised, debts paid, or things begin to work. It is the kind of silence that would rather keep a good story buried than be told. But make no mistake. What we see in the market today is not magic. It is the outcome of vision, backed by execution, from the Tinubu-Shettima administration. When President Bola Tinubu signed off on a six-month waiver to allow the importation of select food items, it was not an act of political showmanship. Rather,…

TWO days after DeepSeek took the world by surprise, a Financial Times report warned that the West should be worried by how China appears to be leading the Artificial Intelligence race. Financial Times says the emergence of DeepSeek from the shadows, catching the West unawares, is a strong indication that China has mastered the art of ‘Kaizen’. I recall that my first encounter with Kaizen, the philosophy that underpins the rise of Japan as the Asian economic powerhouse, is about 10 years now. Societies like China, Japan, and South Korea that anchor their development models on their culture and value…

ANGERED by the appalling situation of Nigeria’s electricity supply sector over several decades of doing the wrong things by successive governments with no remedy in sight, even after hundreds of billions of public funds had been expended, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 chose a different path that had worked in other jurisdictions. He reached out to the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel to help solve the protracted power gridlock in Nigeria. The discussion between the two leaders gave birth to the FG-Siemens Energy AG Presidential Power Initiative in 2019. Under the terms of the agreement of the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap,…

HUMAN beings naturally resist change. When comfortable where we are, we find it extremely difficult to embrace an uncharted path or seek greater glory. Those who are risk averse often don’t want to venture out to embrace unfamiliar territories no matter how tempting the possible reward may appear. We should not, however, be so imprisoned by the fear of the unknown not to explore new possibilities because we find our present circumstances satisfying enough. Since the public debate around the Tax Reform Bills started, the strongest push back against it has come largely from the north. Borno State Governor, Professor…

A VIDEO of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview with News Central Television has been trending on social media platforms for the past week. In the interview, the former President, in a veiled reference to the current administration, said Nigeria has a President who came into office without a plan. Yet, the same ‘planless’ president is implementing a bold economic reform programme that Obasanjo initiated and abandoned mid-way. This intervention is essentially about a tale of two leaders and how they both handled fuel subsidy removal, a very touchy issue every president of Nigeria has avoided since 1973 because of its…

IN his independence anniversary broadcast on October 1st, President Bola Tinubu enumerated his administration’s efforts to drive foreign direct investments into the country. He noted that within the first 16 months of his administration, the government had attracted over $30 billion in FDI. A section of the social media and television punditry that delights in criticising any announcement from the government has gone into overdrive since the broadcast. Led by a desire to put a dagger at any positive news, they have been trying to outdo themselves, all to prove that the President made false claims. Fact-checkers are racing to…

THOSE who think they are taking a dig at the President have been gloating. Their usual refrain is that the man they said built Lagos should build Nigeria for them to see. As Governor of Lagos, the President reformed governance and set the state on the path of irreversible progress. President Tinubu has never claimed he did it alone or discounted the contributions of others who led the state before him. Some of the landmark projects he started are still standing, and the plans and vision he articulated are still being implemented till today. We talk about the Dangote Refinery…

BY his advanced age and eminent status as a former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is by no means qualified to be an elder statesman. Statesmen are highly venerated and revered people to whom we go for advice, guidance and direction. But sometimes, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar behaves as if he should be removed from that exclusive club. Or how else can one interpret some of his utterances and statements? Or is the former vice president merely playing politics? But politics should have its season and time and should sometimes give way for nation-building and patriotism. Statesmen are not…

ON Thursday in Abuja, Minister of Finance Mr Wale Edun addressed a press conference and gave a mid-year report on the economy. The Minister told the press what President Tinubu’s administration had done in the last year to address some of the structural imbalances in the economy, working with the fiscal and monetary authorities. The Minister, who will now address a quarterly media briefing on the state of the economy, highlighted that the economy grew faster in the first quarter of 2024 than in the first quarter of 2023. According to him, economic activity in the first quarter of 2024…

SINCE his first trip abroad as President of Nigeria to Paris in June last year, where he joined other world leaders at the New Global Financial Pact Summit convened by President Emmanuel Macron, President Bola Tinubu has undertaken many other important trips where he has drawn global attention to the new realities in Nigeria and indeed Africa. On those trips, he emerged as the chief salesman of Nigeria and Africa. Like his previous travels where he had forcefully spoken, with admiration, on behalf of Nigeria or for West Africa as Chairman of ECOWAS Authority of Head of States and Government…

TRACKING many stories of remarkable progress currently taking place in Nigeria can be a challenging task. This is so because these important stories are lost to some who daily indulge in the cacophony of adverse reports. These negative news often dominates the headlines. With a 24-hour news cycle that tends to focus mainly on distasteful narratives, several Nigerians have been made to accept the view that nothing good is happening in their country. Those who rely on the mainstream media and social media as the only sources of news and information they consume are the worst hit by the cycle…

BARELY a month after the Federal Executive Council approved the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal superhighway, the contractor has moved to site to build what will be a monumental civil engineering project that Nigeria has ever seen. Since the construction of the iconic Third Mainland Bridge that stretched over 11 kilometres across the lagoon, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal road will usher in a new era of ambitious road infrastructural development projects in Nigeria. The Third Mainland Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world, started during the administration of President Shehu Shagari in 1980. It was completed 10 years after,…

THERE is a viral video where human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, made allusion to the sum of N135billion given to the 36 states in December 2023 at a memorial event in honour of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti. It is important to state here that Mr. Falana has a strong reputation for exaggerations and embellishments. What the Lagos lawyer rendered in that trending video was total misrepresentation of facts. He also did not tell his audience the real reason the said amount was released to the States under the World Bank-funded NG-CARES Programme. Contrary to the wrong impression of wasteful and…

FOR many decades, Nigeria’s move towards rapid development and economic growth was impaired by poor revenue despite the country’s abundant natural resources. The country’s unsavoury economic situation was also compounded by the almost crippling foreign exchange crisis of the last eight years, accentuated by insufficient supply of dollars into the economy. With demand outstripping supply, the fiscal and monetary authorities have been battling to control the declining value of the naira against the US dollars, which has now hit an all-time low of over N1400 to $1 at the parallel market. The local currency, at the official window, oscillates against…

WHILE extolling Funke Akindele, the Nollywood filmmaker for her recent box office accomplishment, President Bola Tinubu lauded the growing contribution of the Nigerian creative industry to the economic growth of the country. He acknowledged its pivotal place as, not just a medium for artistic expression but also a source of enormous soft power and viable cultural export. In his effusive praise of the industry; creative ingenuity, and enterprising spirit of young Nigerians, President Tinubu said that, “the creative industry is one of the high-employment sectors, providing jobs for our able and talented youths. It is an industry that is crucial…

WITH the increasing demand for blue-collar workers in Europe,, North America and Asia, the Federal Government, through the Industrial Training Fund, is now working to up the skills of artisans in Nigeria which, in turn, would boost the nation’s economy through skilled manpower and labour export. Of recent, Denmark, Germany, UAE, Estonia, United Kingdom, Ireland and many other countries are introducing various Visa categories to attract artisans from Africa. To boost the pool of local artisans with proficiency in in-demand skills, President Bola Tinubu has mandated the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to retrain and ensure 20million artisans in Nigeria are…

AS the new year 2024 begins with a positive outlook, Nigerians can look forward to a great and economically rewarding year as the Federal Government is set to launch a massive consumer credit system in the country. While seeking the mandate of Nigerians during the last  electioneering season, President Bola Tinubu was big and loud on the catalytic effect of consumer credit in driving economic recovery, growth and development, in boosting industrial production and as a strong weapon against corruption. Long before he declared for the Presidency of Nigeria, President Tinubu had been a big advocate of consumer credit. He…