Columns
Mixed Metaphors: Tinubu’s eight years of misery, famine and blood?
When I first heard Minister of Works David Umahi say that the Lagos-Calabar Highway would be completed by January 2026, I spilt my coffee. “I assure you that by January next year, God willing, we wi...
4th May 2025
How to manage menstrual irregularities
As we discussed last week, this problem concerns more than one-third of the nation’s population when you consider that, in a youthful country such as ours, women of reproductive age make up a signif...
4th May 2025
Health benefits of socialising (2)
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, recently published an 85-year-long study on what makes people happy. The result was slightly unexpected as it was not just about how much m...
4th May 2025
Strengthen your relationship through honest mental health conversations
Marriage is often perceived as a partnership built on love, trust, and shared dreams. However, despite the significance of this sacred commitment, many couples still struggle to open up about their fe...
3rd May 2025
Most men don’t know who is right for them
The moment his name came up in a discussion, I remembered him. And how I described him was, “the man that comes home every year to find a wife.” That man did that (looking for a nurse-wife) for fo...
3rd May 2025
Neighbour, neighbour, how is the suspended governor?
Neighbour, neighbour, good day. How are politics today, and the suspended governor? Uh, you’re silent. Maybe it’s not a good day because e don happen. You people have a good opportunity to put on ...
2nd May 2025
Lessons for Nigeria in Real Madrid’s impunity
I’ll beat about the bush because a hunter beats about the bush for reasons, which include awakening the bush, calling attention to his presence, or coordinating an attack. By name, I’m a hunter; b...
2nd May 2025
Look down on nobody
We all have unpleasant stories to tell about certain unpleasant people who once roved in our orbits. Memories of the events they provoked have stayed with us and have become part of what we will forev...
2nd May 2025
Aso Villa and its solar power
The idea of Nigeria’s seat of power installing a N10bn solar power structure has generated a lot of interest in the past few weeks. From an ecological point of view, the concept is a welcome develop...
1st May 2025
Nigerian politicians cannot afford opposition
Against the background of ongoing defections to the All Progressives Congress by politicians from the so-called opposition parties, we still harbour the fear of a one-party state as an imminent realit...
1st May 2025
Nigeria is already a de facto one-party state
Nigeria’s political system officially started in 1923 with the establishment of Herbert Macaulay’s Nigerian National Democratic Party. This was after the coming into force of the Clifford Constitu...
30th April 2025
Baba-Ahmed back on the hustings
After spending quality time in the comfort of the Tinubu Presidency, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a descendant of a Mauritanian patriarch, who has held several senior positions in government, is back on his ...
30th April 2025
Uses of irony: Learning from Soyinka’s latest example
Like simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole, irony is a very useful figure of speech. Writers and other creative workers regularly make use of it, including comedians. It can, however, also b...
29th April 2025
Social media ‘terrorists’: Sultan abandoning leprosy for ringworm
Recently, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, called social media “a terrorist organisation.” When the news broke, the first reaction of most people who heard it was that of d...
29th April 2025
Still on institutional quality and government performance
In the final part of this column last week, I concluded that institutional failure is responsible for Nigeria’s socio-economic and political failure today. Nigeria, as a failing state, can still be ...
28th April 2025
Health benefits of socialising (1)
While growing up, my siblings and I lived a sheltered life because my father was very strict. The university I attended was in the same town we lived in, so on a daily basis, I would go from home to s...
27th April 2025
Wanted: a multi-dimensional insecurity offensive
As you may already have heard, the World Bank this week in Washington, DC, warned that poverty in Nigeria will increase by a whopping 3.6 percentage points by 2027. That time span covers President Bol...
27th April 2025
Understanding the meaning of menstrual irregularities
Without a shred of doubt, this issue is one of the most worrying dilemmas faced by teenage girls and their mothers. In many cases, some of our readers do not even wait for the diagnosis of menstrual i...
27th April 2025
Some men don’t know they have children somewhere
One of the stories that struck me recently was about a young girl who gained admission the university last year but had to abandon her studies a few months later because she got pregnant. When asked w...
26th April 2025
Sexual purity can transform a downtrodden life
Dear Ma, I must say that you are a blessing to our generation, and I would love to share some things with you, ma. I have been having issues with the relationships I have had. All they want from me is...
26th April 2025
Coping with the shock of your spouse’s financial mistake
When a financial decision goes wrong in a marriage, the spouse responsible for making the decision can feel a sense of shame, guilt, or regret. Overbearing criticism by the other spouse can be seen as...
26th April 2025
Role of physical activity in sickle cell management
Sickle cell disease is a chronic, inherited blood disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. It is characterised by the production of abnormally shaped red blood cells, which can block blood ...
26th April 2025
Tayo’s second chance at parenthood after 40
Tayo had always envisioned motherhood, a soft, nurturing presence in her life. But life usually has other plans. Her first marriage, a decade-long partnership, ended without the fruit of the womb. The...
26th April 2025
Pastor Ibiyeo-money: Get behind me, Satan!
Wracked by a head-splitting fever and a head-aching red eye, this article may not see the light of day. But if it’s ever published, dear reader, know that this article is a product of pain, lethargy...
25th April 2025
Dancing headless for Fulani people
Irresponsible practices in the journalism profession are a form of headless dance. Many engage in it by misleading, misinforming, and disuniting Nigerians with no thought regarding the consequences. T...
25th April 2025
Tenacious in tribulations
The 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, spoke these words when his nation was challenged: “One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how ...
25th April 2025
Pastor Poju doesn’t understand his terrain
For a sermon that urges people to “understand their terrain”, it is ironic how many things Pastor Poju Oyemade got wrong in his message that compares realities between Nigeria and the USA. Most of...
24th April 2025
Alas, the ‘green’ Pope is gone!
Today, the world mourns. He left our earth just a day shy of World Earth Day (April 22). The whole creation felt his impact because he was no ordinary clergy. It was as if Mother Earth sent him on a m...
24th April 2025
Nigeria’s geopolitical zones as development centres
Geographically, every country is news. That is, if you use a compass as a tool of navigation, each country can be divided into north, east, west and south. Before 1963, when Mid-West was created, Nige...
23rd April 2025
Assault on Ijebu Agemo statue
Something like a desecration of the culture and the definition of the Ijebu people of Nigeria occurred last weekend. And the entire Ijebu nation is understandably alarmed and angry, especially now tha...
23rd April 2025
How the BBC misled me about British English
Growing up in my hometown, Nnewi, in Anambra State, the BBC radio was the premium news channel to listen to. The shortwave signals were strong only early in the morning and late at night. Those who tu...
22nd April 2025
