On Friday, 13th April 2012, the Nigerian mainstream and new media were awash with reports of Nigeria’s dwindling savings. In particular, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala raised alarm over the depletion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) from $20 billion in 2006 to current levels of $3.6 billion. Ngozi thus confirmed what many analysts [...]

At around 01.30 am in the wee hours of Tuesday 13th March, while checking local Nigerian and global news as I usually do before heading to bed, I came across an article on the British daily’s website The Independent, titled “On the Trail of Boko Haram” by Andrew Stroehlein, the Communications Director of the International Crisis Group. Thinking it was one of those [...]

“SubhanAllah! What! I think another bomb just got detonated in my area. It shook the living daylight out of my house which is close to police headquarters, Bompai. From my room I can hear fierceful gun battle.” Friday 20th January, 5.13pm local time “Another bomb just went off, shaking the very foundation of our house. Now I see walls cracking [...]

I have been one of those in favour of the removal of fuel subsidies. However for most Nigerians the problem is not that they don’t understand the logic of spending wisely. The problem is they don’t trust the government to do so. The government has used these tricks in the past and there really is no reason to believe they [...]

  ANNOUNCING A CALLOUS POLICY WITH IMPUNITY A liberalization move by the government to deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industy by removing subsidy on petrol was announced on Sunday 1st January, New Year’s Day just when Nigerians were reeling from the shock of deadly bomb attacks on Christmas day and a spate of sectarian killings in Ebonyi state, the [...]

Ever since the Nigerian government officially announced a few months ago its plans of removing the subsidy on petroleum or premium motor spirit (PMS) by January 2012 , the debate for or against this policy has raged on and is only increasing in intensity by the day. Those for the policy, mostly from the camp of the Executive arm of government [...]

  For anyone who grew up in Northern Nigeria, the Eid-el-Adha/Eid-el-Kabir festival commonly referred to as “Babban Sallah” evokes images of wearing brand new clothes, preparation of hearty meals shared with neighbours (Muslims and Christians alike), exchange of visits between family and friends, going to gardens or parks, and most importantly, the symbolic slaughter of a ram to celebrate and [...]

by Akin Akintayo
President Goodluck Jonathan gave a speech at an interdenominational service celebrating the 51st Independence anniversary of Nigeria and it was replete with utterly dreadful analogies – it was awful, awful, awful.

by Mao Kaci
On Obasanjo’s visit to the family of the murdered Boko Haram leader, and Soyinka’s comments on the visit.

Since the bomb blast at Police Headquarters on June 16th, the Jonathan administration has been more concerned with pushing the single tenure bill and getting involved in a fiasco within the judiciary. Last friday provided another reminder of what should be important. The suicide bomb attack on the UN building is the fourth in Abuja in the last ten months, [...]