“From his reaction when the Committee announced the 2026 winners in Oslo last week, the President is dying to get the real thing. That prize appears to be worth more than the combined value of Cuba, Greenland, the Strait of Hormuz, and the rash of trade tariffs”
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“When Mr. Peter Obi speaks, whether you agree with him or not, you feel a sense of conviction or ambivalence. When former Vice President Atiku Abubakar speaks of experience, you hear the burden of six attempts. When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu speaks of renewal, you either feel hope or exhaustion, depending on where you stand”
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“If the minister was not basking in a delusional fantasy, the sort of hyper optimism often exhibited after one bottle too many of cold beer, then he should have started where it matters most: dissuade the Presidential villa from budgeting N17 billion (about $12.5 million) on a solar grid.”
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“Ishiekwene writes of mobs roaming the streets. That is real. But if Nwankwo died in custody, then mobs are not the whole story, and treating them as the whole story is a kind of comfort. A mob is a failure of policing. A death in custody is the state performing the violence itself, in a building, on a record, with a docket number”
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“They blame foreigners for “taking the jobs,” putting pressure on healthcare and other services, and contributing to crime. On top of these, Nigerian targets are also accused of drug-running, and the mortal sin of libido levels that put their hosts at a social disadvantage, as if life were a sex Olympiad”
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“For me, it’s not very important who bought Daily Times – whether it was sold to a group of journalists or to some fishermen on Ekeremo waterside. We have seen journalists manage media houses successfully and others fail disastrously. We have also seen non-journalists turn around ailing media houses”
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It is not entirely Atiku’s fault that most Nigerians now view subsidy as the only thing they have ever benefited from the political elite. For the most part, few people care about the corruption that plagues the subsidy regime because the Tinubu administration has taken the subsidy money and given it back to equally unaccountable governors
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“Sultan Abubakar III is, if you like, a moderate social crusader, which is somewhat ironic, given that he is from Sokoto, often regarded as the bastion of conservatism. He has spoken out for education for the child – boy or girl – reminding fools and their enablers who despise education in the name of Islam that the Caliphate was founded on education and enlightenment. And he’s right. Much of the documented history of the Caliphate owes a lot to Nana Asmau, Sultan Mohammed Bello’s younger half-sister, who spoke four languages”
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If Adeleke were to defect to the APC now, he would be risking his advantage. The trade-off of party seats for 2027 might disfavour him or weaken his bargaining power. Carrying the momentum into next year, however, would likely strengthen his hold of National Assembly seats from the current seven to perhaps nine or more, and also secure a comfortable majority in the state assembly. If, on the contrary, he begins now to antagonise Tinubu, and the President wins reelection in January, Adeleke risks a resurgence of brutal federal might that could not only weaken his control over federal legislators but also install a hostile state assembly that could impeach him
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The state of the living spring now looks like the Strait of Hormuz. And it’s not just the arrival of generals, henchmen and supporters of the major parties that put Osun on a war footing. On Wednesday, a bank source told me that none of the branches in Lagos could pay out up to N5 million in cash. Politicians are raiding the banks, and Osun is floating on a dead sea of money, spooking fears that those who survive the bullets may also have to resist being buried in slush funds
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