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What the falling fuel consumption numbers say of Nigeria’s deeply troubled economy

It has been flying all around social media, and at a point, I got confused about what people were celebrating bandying the drop in the volume of fuel Nigerians consumed each day. While many of the people sharing this were “using style” to praise the Tinubu administration for using subsidy removal to reveal the fraud in the system, there were those who were gloating over the savings wrought on Nigeria by the government by putting the brakes on excessive consumption of fuel. Still sharing these posts were innocent people making jokes about the entire situation with little or no understanding of how dire things truly are. Those who shared the information cited data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory...

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Electoral Fraud: Edo may be heard, but Enugu shouted and it was snuffed out

The recently held Governorship election in Edo State is trending for all the wrong reasons as forensic analyses have revealed that it was one person in INEC who allegedly sat down and wrote all the results used to declare the winner' This allegation by Okoi Obono-Obla, a PDP chieftain is raising a lot of dust in many quarters in the country. The Edo story will gain traction because the people with deep pockets are speaking for them. But the same thing happened in Enugu State in the 2023 elections, and although they were pleaded court filings, the people's will was thumped and trampled. Like Edo, Owo in the Nkanu East local government area of East state in the 2023 Governorship election, one INEC...

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The killing of folk singer, Igbo Jah, Nigerian Police and the lax policing of Nigeria

That Enugu Ogene singer, Okezie Chikezie Nwamba, popularly known as Igbo Jah, was killed by hail of police bullets in Enugu is no longer news. What is news is that he was killed on the premises of a police formation where, according to the latest information, he was invited to entertain the leadership. When news of the ugly incident broke, the initial police bulletin from the Police Public Relations Officer of the Enugu State Police Command, Daniel Ndukwe, read that Igbo Jah was at the Enugu State Anti-Cult police formation “for a friendly chat,” a phrase which effectively hid the mission of the slain folk singer to the notorious place where policemen arrest and detain people, mostly on trumped-up charges. The world...

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Fr. Mbaka’s apology: Between rescuing the present and waiting to reverse the clock

Early in October 2024, controversial Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry of the Holy Spirit (AMEN) took to the pulpit to apologise for the transgressions of the church against the people. Mbaka recognized that the church has damaged the economic and moral fabric of society by aligning with politicians against the people. As we mourn and moan about the increasing assault on the educational and economic assets of Enugu State by the current administration under the headship of Governor Peter Mbah, it has become important to interrogate Fr Mbaka’s words of contrition. Should we dismiss them as water poured on a rock? Should we hope that perhaps there is a possibility to explore miracles, which the priest...

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Survival by circumvention and the fate of Nigeria in the looming relief road unemployment

The Nigeran Naira is on an uncontrollable plummet, competing with Ghana’s Cedi, Sierre Leone’s Leone, the Guinean Franc, and a few other backbenchers in the race for the fastest to hit rock bottom. Our currency, in the last fourteen months, has, without dignity, gone unclad before the global community, dropping an estimated 150 percent of its value, and doesn’t look like its family of minders has the creativity to stem the slide. When the free-fall began immediately following the handing over of government to President Bola Tinubu, the feeling of economic uncertainty pervaded the country. People wondered how it was possible to navigate the harsh situation, and even mustered some of the millions of disgruntled citizens into street protestations that were...

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The President of Splendour Republic and his Vice

Rather than stay back home to manage the embarrassing kidnap of more than 127 girls from Chibok town in Borno State which was bending his presidency then, Goodluck Jonathan chose to travel for a meeting of, I think it was either the African Union or the United Nations General Assembly. Back home, President Jonathan was heavily criticized for his insensitivity to the challenges at home, and in one of his Presidential Media chats, he rationalized his action by saying that, “the moment a president of Nigeria stops travelling to any part of the world because there is a crisis at home, then Nigeria is in trouble.” This statement which presented former President Jonathan as naïve and insensitive drew streams of caustic...

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Paris 2024 runway Olympics, country-of-origin branding and lessons for filial cannibal Nigeria

As the embarrassing, and if I may add, needless dispute between Dangote Refineries and the Nigerian government as represented by the NNPC lingers, the Paris Olympics arrived with a basket of lessons on country-of-origin branding that I feel this country and its leaders should learn from. I recognize the fact that my nation, especially at the leadership level is hard at hearing, most times for no reason. Still, it is worth presenting how France provided great leverage for French businesses by exploiting the opportunity of the 2024 Olympic Games. I was almost led to admire the creativity behind the street carnival format adopted for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games until I saw the ingenious marketing goals that compelled the host...

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The Rehoboam/Aurangzeb soul fusion, their incarnation in Enugu and transcendent Peter Mbah

Christian and Islamic historians each identify one oppressive and power-drunk leader whose iron-fisted style destroyed many lives and in so doing, facilitated their descent into the lands of the vile. We remember Rehoboam, the young King whose famous statement that while his father chastised the people of Israel with whips, he would chastise them with scorpions led to the split of the kingdom of Israel into two. As recorded in 1 Kings 14, Rehoboam committed the crime of conceit, refusing the counsel of the wise and treating the people as if their opinion did not matter. In the end, there was a rebellion by 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel, who left to form their kingdom, leaving the wicked king to...

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