I approach this subject as a political scientist by training and a researcher of global geopolitics by vocation, not as an advocate for any capital or any cause. A doctorate in political science, if it teaches anything durable, teaches distrust of the comfortable verdict rendered in the first week of a crisis. It teaches one to ask what an instrument of coercion was designed to achieve, what it actually achieved, and what residue it deposited once the communique announcing success had already been filed and forgotten. My interest in Yemen and Iran is therefore scholarly rather than partisan. I hold…
Author: Editor
I have been itching to write about the 2026 Osun gubernatorial election. Still, work pressure, political sensitivity, and the Nigerian tendency to condemn people based on their names, ethnicity, religion, etc., kept me from writing until the desire became irresistible. When the campaign for the Osun election was at its peak, I told one of my wives (don’t mind my polygamous nature) that I am keenly interested in the process and outcomes of the Osun election; she waved it off as a non-event: reelection of a dancing governor? What does he do except dance at the slightest opportunity? How can…
While being interviewed on the Mic On Podcast, hosted by Channel Television’s Seun Okinbaloye on Friday, September 5, 2026, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, erstwhile vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, openly alleged that Vice President Kashim Shettima does not wear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s signature cap, bearing the infinity sign, because “maybe his marabout said he shouldn’t wear it.” Datti Baba-Ahmed has gradually earned a reputation for making all manner of unfounded claims once he is before a mic and camera. And he’s not your regular loudmouth, the sort that earns a living for badmouthing whoever is on the other…
There is something deeply unsettling about being told to watch what you eat when you have no realistic means of knowing what has been put into it. The consumer sees the colour of the fruit, the freshness of the vegetables, the clarity of the oil and the appearance of the grain. What the consumer cannot see is the pesticide residue, the industrial dye, the chemical used to accelerate ripening, the substance used to preserve food or the contaminant introduced somewhere along the supply chain. That invisible danger is becoming an increasingly difficult subject for Nigeria to dismiss. In August, former…
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has declared a force majeure event on the 330kV Kainji-Birnin Kebbi Transmission Line following the collapse of a transmission tower along the corridor. TCN said the line tripped at about 10:44 p.m. on Monday, September 7, 2026. According to a statement issued by the company on Tuesday, a trial reclosure was attempted at 11:07 p.m., but the line tripped again. The company said its linesmen from the Birnin Kebbi Sub-Region subsequently began a patrol of the transmission corridor to locate the fault. The patrol team discovered the collapsed transmission tower, identified as T367, on…
Nigeria’s healthcare challenges cannot be addressed through treatment alone. While hospitals, medical professionals and healthcare facilities remain essential, prevention must also occupy an important place in the nation’s healthcare conversation. One of the foundations of prevention is knowledge. Health information can save lives People make healthcare decisions every day. Knowing how to recognise warning signs, understand basic preventive practices and seek professional care at the right time can make an important difference. Community health education can help make this information easier to understand and more accessible to ordinary families. Bringing prevention to the community Healthcare information should not be concentrated…
A few years ago, on my way to Sokoto, I met a stern-looking Road Safety Officer at the rail crossing of Tsafe town, Zamfara State, who demanded my vehicle’s particulars, which I delivered promptly. After examining the particulars, he demanded a triangle and a fire extinguisher, which I provided. When he found nothing amiss, he tried to operate the Extinguisher and, in the process, broke the pressure head. We looked at each other, and he profusely apologized. While the scene was being played, an overloaded commercial car passed by, its passengers and goods crammed in at three times the vehicle’s…
Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up – Mahatma Gandhi. This was first written on 22/10/2018 with the headline for 2019 and then repeated in 2023 with minor adjustments, and now for 2027. The only change is the year in the headline, from 2019 to 2023 and now 2027. Then the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has replaced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Now that the primaries are over, with about 99% of the registered political parties having concluded their primary…
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has unveiled its governorship and deputy governorship candidates for the 2027 general elections in 28 states. The party released the names in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday, as part of preparations for the 2027 polls. The list features several prominent politicians and former public office holders, including Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in Lagos, former Kaduna State governorship candidate Isa Mohammed Ashiru, former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in Kebbi, and Great Ogboru in Delta State. Senator Ahmad Babba Kaita was listed as the party’s candidate in Katsina, while Senator…
The ruling APC knows something about how opposition parties can come together, overcome their differences, create synergy around a single candidate, mobilise and defeat an incumbent president. They know the process very well because they did it between 2013 and 2015, when they came together, negotiated, agreed on how the candidate would emerge and then went ahead to agree on a consensus candidate. The said candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, was, in a sense, an easy candidate to agree on because the other leading contenders could see possibilities for themselves in the post-Buhari era. The outcome of the consensus position that emerged was that, for the first time in the…