Opinion

“Amotekun. This issue has dominated recent discourse and media headlines. Distilled to its basics, it concerns how best state governments can assist with the safety and security of their residents.

The United Kingdom’s exit of the European Union is now all but certain. Only the passage of time will reveal what their new relationship shall be. But with this new arrangement, I – like many other Commonwealth leaders – also seek a new settlement: not only of closer relations between the UK and my own nation, but of unleashing trade within the club in which we together shall remain.

For many years, week after week, Shaka Momodu opens the sewers, and pours vitriol on President Muhammadu Buhari on the back page of Thisday Newspapers. We ignore him, reasoning that when a mind is diseased, there is hardly much you can do to point such soul to decency. It remains impervious to anything not from the very nether region of hell.

Today marks a new decade. It is a time of hope, optimism and fresh possibilities. We look forward as a nation to the 2020s as the opportunity to build on the foundations we have laid together on security, diversification of our economy and taking on the curse of corruption. These are the pledges on which I have been twice elected President and remain the framework for a stable, sustainable and more prosperous future.

In the last couple of weeks, the economic and political news coming out of Nigeria has not been positive. It has been about doing things the wrong way, lack of due process, desecration of the rule of law, outright impunity for violators of rights and economic policies that have attracted negative ratings

As rare as impeachments may be, today’s impeachment of Donald Trump, president of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors was pretty much inevitable.

John Quincy Adams once said “there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.” He may have very well been referring to Nigeria of the last three years.

I boarded a commercial airliner heading to Lagos from Abuja. I was already seated, and strapping my seat belt, when a young man approached me. He must have been in his late 20s, or at most, early 30s. I shook hands, greeted him warmly, and he slipped something in my palm. He went back to his seat.

The reported new editorial policy of the Punch Newspapers to address President Muhammadu Buhari as Major General in his official title and refer to his government as a regime instead of administration, comes to us as totally curious and utterly incredible.

Nigeria is a very religious society no doubt. Churches, mosques and shrines dot the country’s landscape. The atheist population in Nigeria is very insignificant as many of the citizens are adherents of Christianity, Islam or African Indigenous Religions. Our religiosity reflects not only in our modes of worship but also in our names and ways of dressing. Religious festivals are commonplace here. The Osun Osogbo Festival holds every August in Osogbo. There is the Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife. The Ojude Oba Festival is celebrated in Ijebu-Ode on the second day of the Eid el Kabir festival. Easter and Christmas celebrations are observed annually by Christians. These are apart from the annual church congresses and conventions.

This is 20 years of Nigeria’s experiment with civil rule which aspires to be a full-blown democracy. The current dispensation is founded on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), being the fundamental norm as all laws, actions and policies which are inconsistent with it are void to the extent of their inconsistency

The ninth Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made history on Thursday, December 5, with the passage of the 2020 Appropriation Bill into law, thereby fulfilling the promise of the legislature to return the budget cycle to January - December period as it used to be.

On June 12, 2018, Joshua Dariye, former Plateau state governor and senator, huddled in the dock awaiting the verdict of fate for pilfering N1.6 billion public funds at a high court of the federal capital territory (FCT).

I have no hesitation in admitting that I have a personal, formative interest in the health of the Nigerian judiciary, deeper perhaps than the average Nigerian. At a critical junction in the life of this writer, a judge resolved to give primacy to the call of conscience, affirm his professional integrity and defend the supremacy of law in defiance of state interference.

In August, Nigeria closed its border with Benin without notice. Then, in October, the customs service announced that all goods trade would remain entirely, and indefinitely, banned across all land borders. Finally, on November 14 came the announcement that Nigeria, Benin and Niger would form a joint border patrol force.

In meteorological lore, hurricanes – cyclone-strength winds are usually named after females. But an exception was seemingly made last Saturday when ‘Hurricane Oshiomhole’ that sacked the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the maritime state of Bayelsa made landfall. This time, elated locals gave it a man’s name, in sheer awe of the comprehensiveness and clinical finish of the change it brought.

By last week, the governorship/senatorial election in Kogi State had been reduced to a sex duel, with Senator Dino Melaye inviting his arch rival, Governor Yahaya Bello, to a mojo contest.

Now, my introduction to Professor Tam David-West was on this wise: I was brought up by a very strict, educationist father, who would not allow his seven children travel during holidays, particularly the long vacation at the end of the session. He had his own way of keeping us busy.