Author: Kazeem Akintunde

A FEW years back, government officials attached to Ifako/Ijaye Local Government area of Lagos State were in my mum’s house to get her details. She was told that the Federal Government was registering elderly Nigerians ahead of plans to pay them and those considered ‘less privileged’ a stipend of N5,000 monthly. At over 75 years and a widow, she was told that she is eminently qualified for the monthly token. She eagerly gave all the information requested but she ran into difficulties when they asked for her bank account details. She had none, and in order not to miss out…

HER name, Mmesoma means Goodness or Good works in Igbo dialect, but in the last few days, that name has been on the lips of many Nigerians for not-so-good reasons, no thanks to her fraudulent acts after writing the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination. Mmesoma, who is from a poor background in Anambra State, claimed that she scored 362 marks in the examination, prompting many to celebrate her brilliance, with Innoson Motors, an indigenous vehicle manufacturing company, rewarding her ‘hard work’ with N3 million. In an attempt to do same, the Anambra State government tried to validate her…

FOR the most part of last week, the social media space was awash with news of the dalliance between David Oyeleke, popularly known as Davido, with two different women. American-based Anita Brown set the ball rolling when she claimed that the singer impregnated her and to prove her claim, conducted a pregnancy test live on social media. The noise from that episode was yet to die down when another French lady, Ivanna Bay also revealed that she is also pregnant with Davido’s child. She also added a little drama to her claim when she said that she was surprised that…

MANY Nigerians are going through hell on earth. This is due to the traumatic experiences of residents, commuters, and motorists daily on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Since the reconstruction of the road began in 2009, many lives have been lost to road carnage while armed robbers play ludo with the lives of Nigerians whenever there is traffic gridlock on the road. The number of man-hours wasted, and the mental stress many have been subjected to on that road is, to say the least, harrowing. Even after several years of work on the road, said to be the busiest in Africa, it…

SINCE the establishment of the Economic and Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003 with a mandate to fight financial crimes and other related offences, successive chairmen of the agency have been removed in controversial circumstances. In the last 20 years, the agency has been headed by five different people and all have had to leave their seats without completing their tenures. Going by the Act that established the agency, the Chairman of the Commission should be in office for four years, which can be renewed for another term of four years. But last Wednesday, the tenure of AbdulRasheed Bawa, who came…

A FRIEND and colleague, Rotimi Durojaiye, had in 2006, written an exclusive story on the shenanigans surrounding the purchase of an aircraft for the presidential fleet which landed him in troubled waters with the then-president, Olusegun Obasanjo. Titled: ‘Controversy over Age, Cost of Presidential Jet’, it detailed how a fairly used aircraft was packaged and sold as new to Nigeria after huge sums of money in foreign currency was paid for it. Durojaiye, then Aviation Correspondent with Daily Independent, published the story on June 12, 2006, exactly 17 years today. Another journalist, Gbenga Aruleba, of African Independent Television (AIT), escalated…

ORDINARILY, Bola Ahmed Tinubu should enjoy the first few months in office as his ‘honeymoon period’. Our brand-new President, going by the American tradition which seems to have been adopted all over the world, should be learning the ropes of his new office, appointing people that will work with him and getting a handle on presiding over the most populous black nation on earth. In my piece last week, I actually expected Nigerians to give his administration at least a one-month honeymoon grace period before beginning to ask questions about his policies and programmes for the country. The world over,…

TODAY, May 29th, 2023, the eight-year rule of President Muhammadu Buhari finally comes to an end. In the next few hours, his nomenclature will change as he would now be known and addressed as a former president of Nigeria. From 10 a. m. this morning, the man from Daura in Katsina will finally hand over Nigeria to a Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The eight-year contract he had with Nigeria would be finally over. Like being in a turbulent marriage, Buhari got tired of presiding over the entity called Nigeria. The over 200 million people of this country made life ‘difficult’ for…

SEUN Anikulapo Kuti, son of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has been in the news lately for the wrong reason. The 40-year-old musician was seen in a viral video last week engaging in a hot argument with a policeman on Third Mainland Bridge. Within the twinkle of an eye, Seun landed the policeman a dirty slap on his cheek. Seun forgot, or was not aware that citizen journalism has come to stay in Nigeria. With just a phone, anyone could record for posterity, what is happening in their domain. That incident was captured with a phone camera. The stunned officer…

WHILE putting to ‘bed’ last week’s column titled: ‘Buhari’s Eight-Year Rule: A Postscript (2)’, a friend called to suggest that I should write on the travails of the former Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who was recently sentenced to nine years in prison, alongside his wife, Beatrice, and their Doctor, Obinna Obeta, for four, and 10 years, respectively. His argument was that the sentencing of Ekweremadu and his wife was unprecedented in the history of Nigeria and that it would be a topical issue for some days. I thanked him and continue work on last week’s edition of The Discourse.…

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday last week told Nigerians that he has delivered on most of his ‘change agenda’ upon which the APC anchored its promises to Nigerians eight years ago. Like a man conscious of his place in history, Buhari, while speaking at the inauguration of a housing estate in Zuba, Abuja, told his audience that the housing estate would address the multidimensional poverty among the citizens. How that is possible beats me hollow. This week, we shall look at the Nation’s economy under Buhari, one of the major planks upon which his administration promised to effect change in…

“All countries have a sovereign right to decide which other countries to partner with, but these choices have consequences, of course.”- John Godfrey- US First Envoy to Sudan After 25 Years MAKE no mistake about it, the ongoing war in Sudan is beyond two Generals fighting for control of the soul of the East African Country. In fact, if care is not taken, the Sudan crisis could become another protracted war. In actual fact, Khartoum has inadvertently become the second leg of the war in Ukraine. Like the conflict in Ukraine, powerful nations in the world have picked another location…

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, like a heavyweight boxing champion going for the 12th round, is already battle-weary and eagerly awaiting the referee to end the contest. For him, his contract with Nigeria and Nigerians will come to an end on May 29th when he would formally handover the reign of government to President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has told whoever cares to listen that he is tired of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, and longs to be with his cows and people in Daura, his hometown of Katsina state, for a deserved rest. In the next three or four editions of…

I CRINGED and I was moved to tears after reading a tweet from Abubakar Hamma Galafi on his Twitter handle @Galafo_Hamma recently. Galafi wrote: ‘I cursed this man, Prof Mahmoud in every of my sujoud this fasting and appealed to Allah (SWA) to deny him peace and harmony on earth and in the hereafter. He cheated Nigerians, cheated his name, his family, and his religion.’ What could have been responsible for such a post is beyond me. I am still lost as to why a human being would be so angry with a fellow man that you may have never…

THE 2023 General Elections have ended, but the ripples generated by the polls are yet to clear. Rather, the polity is heating up as the May 29 handover date draws near. The dramatis personae are up in arms, and have vowed to bring the roof down. Tension is high in the land as the political warlords continue stoking fire. Though the elections have been won and lost, Nigerians are yet to move on, as both the losers and the victorious are still in the battle trenches, prolonging the ‘war’. Some are of the opinion that the election results were manipulated…

HIS name is Iyorchia Ayu, a Tiv from Gboko in present-day Benue State. Iyorchia, among the Tiv ethnic group, means someone people are afraid of. Ayu, on the other hand, means a water mermaid. In essence, Iyorchia Ayu could be literarily translated to mean people are afraid of mermaids. But Nyesom Wike, the stormy petrel in Rivers State, and his faction in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, seem not to be afraid of either Iyorchia Ayu or any mermaids lurking within the precinct of Wuse in Abuja, as they have succeeded in getting rid of the ‘mermaid’ at the Wadata…

YOUR Excellency, let me first of all, congratulate you on your hard-fought victory in the recently concluded presidential election. That you fought a real battle before the victory came as no surprise to many political watchers. Even before the main election, getting the ticket of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, which you co-founded, did not come easy. You were forced to make the now famous Emilokan chant in Abeokuta to remind those who wanted to rock the boat that it was your turn to become the next President of Nigeria, and that it was sacrosanct for a gentleman’s agreement…

THE president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last week played a fast one on political watchers when he said that he had no preferred candidate for the number three position in the country, the Senate Presidency. Tinubu, who spoke at a meeting with the newly elected federal lawmakers on the platform of his party, the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, is of the view that the leadership of the party would come up with appropriate guidelines on who should get what when it was time to pick principal officers of the 10th National Assembly. Tinubu, who spoke through the vice president-elect, Kashim…

THE year 2023 is just three months old but two names that have had much impact on Nigerians in such a short time are those of Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Emefiele and Yakubu, within a very short period of time, have etched their names unto the subconsciousness of many Nigerians. Some sleep and dream of the duo, particularly the CBN governor. The two Nigerians, though not of the same ethnic stock, have impacted the lives of the average Nigerian due to…

THE 2023 presidential election has come and gone. It is now time to do a postscript and examine issues that define the poll. One of those issues is the dismal number of voters that turned out to cast their ballots. On February 25, 2023, a little above 24 million Nigerians went to the poll to elect a new president. This dismal number is far less than the 93.4 million Nigerians that registered to vote. Many Nigerians are shocked by the low turnout of voters on election day and have attributed it to the late-hour cashless policy introduced by the Central…