I was recently a guest on a radio talk show. I was to discuss the Nigerian government’s inability, thus far, to contain and defeat the Boko Haram. At one point, the talk show host asked my opinion on the court marshal of mutinous Nigerian soldiers who heckled their divisional commander and shot
As the D-Day for the promised all-out battle against insurgency and graft draws near, the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, has solicited the cooperation of Nigerians in prosecuting the war. And, like a true general, he has renewed his vow to lead the campaign. Buhari, who spoke on Thursday in an interview with the British Broadcasting […]
It is nine months since the Chibok Girls were abducted and the question is: Will some Chibok couples be grandparents without knowing it? It is a harsh, even cruel question to confront a grieving and traumatised parent with, but we are past such considerations. After nine torturous months our eyes should be wide open, no […]
We are now in 2015 and I dare say that there will be nothing so special or tragic about the year, notwithstanding the feelings of imminent doom for Nigeria in certain quarters. There is what may be a premeditated conspiracy that has thrown up a great deal of speculations and predictions which seem to support […]
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime” — Aristotle. “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living” — Gail Sheehy. The seed that had been sown by elements of evil extraction in Nigeria had been producing fruits and the fruits have been poisonous ones. I am not […]
• President-elect renews pledge to tackle corruption AT exactly 2.35pm on Tuesday, the Presidentelect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), was formally presented with his certificate of return by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega. General Buhari was accompanied to the podium by the Vice-
Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou has said that “the end of Boko Haram is near.” Issoufou spoke with VOA French to Africa news service Tuesday during a visit to Washington. He said Boko Haram “is not eradicated but was greatly weakened” by an offensive launched by multinational forces late in January. Since then, troops from Nigeria, Niger,
Recently in Jimeta Yola Adamawa state administrative headquarters of both Tapital pulaku international and state Secretariat respectively there is a high number of street bergers roaming the knocks and crannies of the two towns to get a means of survival, our correspondent investigate and found out that most of the people begging along the streets […]
The Nigerian Army has foiled an attack by some members of the Boko Haram terrorist group in Gombe State, North-East Nigeria, killing 3 of them in the process. While parading the corpses of the insurgents before reporters at the army barracks in Gombe, the state capital, the spokesperson of the 301 Artillery regiment said one […]
In the past four years, Nigeria has been under siege from the Boko Haram, a rag tag group of fundamentalists with a mission to convert the country to an Islamic theocracy. Before now, there was the tendency to dismiss the threat as nothing but a manageable irritation. But as the Boko Haram insurgency assumed a […]
Inside the Boko Haram (BH) camp, like in any other terrorist organisation, all is never full of roses as many may assume, they also have their internal war to unravel. Research shows that reasonable amount of BH members are not uniformly motivated by the cause, nor equally willing to sacrifice for the cause and the […]
At least two people were killed in a suspected Boko Haram attack on polling stations in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, residents and an election official told AFP. The attacks happened in the villages of Birin Bolawa and Birin Fulani in the Nafada district of Gombe state, which has been repeatedly targeted by the Islamists. An […]
For the north to reel out of its squalour, there is definitely a need for major rethinking, an inside-out revolution of mindset. A region and its people cannot develop when a handful of its population can ‘live high on the hog’ almost for eternity. Witness how many traditional rulers, ‘first class’ Emirs and Chiefs especially, […]
With Boko Haram terrorising and sacking towns and villages in the North, some Islamic countries, like Sudan and Chad, are aiding them because of oil in Chad basin, and the Nigerian army is struggling with out of date arms, after years of producing millionaire generals. It would appear that the hand writing is on the […]
Going by the timeline of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), campaigns for presidential and National Assembly elections should commence this month, including those for state houses of Assembly. Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, the nation has been experiencing various challenges in building virile institutions, fighting sectarian crises and
Since the unfortunate entry of the Boko Haram terror sect into Nigeria some years back, several reasons have been adduced to why it has refused to disappear from the political landscape. Just on Saturday, the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, listed the weakness of the Nigerian state as one reason the sect has been […]
The recent visit to Borno State by President Goodluck Jonathan should be applauded by all wellmeaning Nigerians. The visit took him to camps for displaced persons and the military hospital where he saw firsthand soldiers wounded in battles while fighting Boko Haram insurgents. Following this, a lot of comments and insinuations have been made for […]
If the North’s problems would have been solved by having a Northerner in power, the North ought to have been a paradise by now. No. The problem of both North and South can only be solved by having the right people in power not once in a while, but all the time. Vision and discipline […]
The Nigerian Military has recaptured Gwoza, a Local Government Area of Borno State, a border town about 135 kilometres South-East of Maiduguri. Disclosing this in Abuja n Friday, the director of defence information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said, Gwoza was freed of the militants this morning. Olukolade further disclosed that Nigerian troops had engaged the […]
The United Nations Human Rights Council has been requested to host a special session next week on abuses by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria and neighboring countries, the council president said Friday. The U.N.’s top rights body received the request late Thursday from Algeria, on behalf of the group of African countries, president Joachim Ruecker […]
