April 22, 2025
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The Presidential Air Fleet

Ihesiulo Grace 0
‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’ – Martin Luther King The current government inherited from its’ predecessor a fleet of 10 aircraft which aviation experts claim is the second ‘largest in the country’ – second only to Arik Air, a commercial
Columnist

‘Leeches’

Ihesiulo Grace 0
  It is official, the National Assembly, NASS, is broke. Looks like it’s’ members now find it difficult ‘to meet their financial obligations’. The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, is reported to have lamented that ‘the situation was so worrisome that legislators were not receiving their allowances as and when due’. ALLOWANCES he said, not
Columnist

‘For Dis Buhari Time

Ihesiulo Grace 0
A news item is attractive and one feels like writing about it then next minute a more juicy news item breaks on the front page. And wow! One must shift the interest to the latest just like a husband does to the latest addition to his seraglio. On the 15th of August, some days after […]
odumakin
Columnist

Interrogating oil search in Benue Trough

Ihesiulo Grace 0
(Columnist) The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikati Baru while receiving a delegation from Benue State recently  announced that the oil firm  is under a marching order to commence exploration activities in the Benue Trough, a major geological formation underlying a large part of Nigeria, extending about 1,000km North-East
Columnist

No road closed

Ihesiulo Grace 0
Gone are the days when a street (an entire street) was closed because someone in the neighbourhood was holding a party. There was no ‘Road Closed’ sign to indicate to the public. The road was just closed. And, in most cases, no approval was sought from the Council. Those were the days when ‘anything goes’ […]
Columnist

The Heritage

Ihesiulo Grace 0
He’d been receiving calls from Nigeria since he made his first trip there six months ago. He’s 40 something years old. He was born in Britain into a mixed marriage – father from Nigeria and mother from St. Lucia in the Caribbean. The father moved out of the house when Bamidele was 15 years. He […]
Columnist

Hadiza Usman: What qualifies for ports?

Ihesiulo Grace 0
Twenty hours before the announcement of one of the conveners of #BringBackOurGirls, Hadiza Usman, as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Thisday Newspapers had the “scoop”. I have decided to put some marks on the scoop given the known fact that the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari and Hadiza’s boss […]
Columnist

The Negotiability of Nigeria

Ihesiulo Grace 0
There has been a lot of talk these days amongst the low and mighty in Nigeria about the unity of Nigeria, notably the sustainability of its unity. PMB and Prof represent the left side of the divide: “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done!”  The other side is equally strongly represented: […]
O'Yemi Afolabi
Columnist

Ihesiulo Grace 0
It was a lovely day. The sun wasn’t too bright. People were milling about. Parents, siblings, guardians, grandparents and friends were smiling and laughing with each other. ‘Congratulations’ was in order. The fresh graduates were posing for group photographs. They were being cued by the man behind the camera on what to do at the […]
O'Yemi Afolabi
Columnist

The Otuoke Intersection

Ihesiulo Grace 0
Late last week, news broke on the social media of the Federal Government signing a renegotiated contract of the coastal railway (Lagos – Calabar) with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation. The new contract is supposed to be US$800m lower than previously agreed upon by the Jonathan government. The proposed routes for the planned Lagos […]
Abdul Mahmud
Columnist Headlines Opinion

The Road to Aluu By Abdul Mahmud

Ihesiulo Grace 0
For all the criticisms of the law, justice and equity remain its redeeming features even though the courts of law are ever too slow to serve justice to litigants who battle for either reparation or absolution, particularly in justice systems like ours, weakened by the improprieties of power, by merchants who hawk influence inside the […]
Columnist

If I was a DISCO, I won’t deliver power

Ihesiulo Grace 0
In 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo signed into law the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA). The intendment of government was to solve the perennial problem of erratic electricity supply in Nigeria. Government’s intention was of course noble and praiseworthy. No country can develop without electric power. You cannot point to any country in the world […]
Columnist

“An army of anything is possible”

Ihesiulo Grace 0
Lt. General Salihu Ibrahim FSS FHWC (retired) was Chief of Army Staff (Nigeria) from August 1990 until September 1993 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. Ibrahim joined the army in 1956. He was given officer’s training at the Nigerian Military Training College. He became a respected Armoured Corps officer, considered apolitical although he […]
Abdul Mahmud
Columnist

Stealing from the poor

Ihesiulo Grace 0
We entered a new low this week with the screaming headline of the online newspaper, Premium Times, “Boko Haram victims dying of starvation as Borno officials steal relief materials”, depicting how our public servants wade through pig slurry. The news story tells us far more about how public servants are having a good time playing […]
O'Yemi Afolabi
Columnist

Father Dearest

Ihesiulo Grace 0
This year Father’s Day was celebrated on Sunday, the 19th June. So with the words of Reverend Lynn Cox of the Unitarian Congregation of York in Northeast England at the back of our mind, we look at what Father’s Day was, is or might have been for you or me. Prayer for a Complicate Father’s […]
odumakin
Columnist

Aregbesola and the murder of innocence

Ihesiulo Grace 0
These are not the best of times in my state of origin, Osun; where we are currently observing funeral ceremonies of innocence as the extremes tendencies of the state governor, Rauf Aregbesola have put a knife to the very thing that made us one people. I met Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in 1998 when on Sunday […]
O'Yemi Afolabi
Columnist

CHECKING OUT!

Ihesiulo Grace 0
– How’re you getting on with your travel preparations? – So you’ve got your visa to travel! – Lucky you! – By the way, were you given the number of months/years you asked for? It’s that time of the year when the above conversation will be topical in cities in Nigeria. And this goes on […]
Columnist

Remembering Kudirat Abiola

Ihesiulo Grace 0
The last decade of the twentieth century welcomed our country to its warts and all- the decline of the purchase value of military dictatorship, of one party rule, of the culture of personalization of power which defined the African decade of the last century, the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the global […]