By PAULINA NZERUBE NIGERIA marked 65 years of independence still battling diseases long considered conquerable. For the Asagba of Asaba, His Royal Majesty Prof. Epiphany Azinge, this is not just disappointing — it is shameful. Hosting Dr. Joachim Ajakaiye, Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Trypanosomiasis Research (NITR), the monarch delivered a scathing critique of […]
By ANITA KNIGHT NIGERIA’S ivory towers may soon be silenced again. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has fired a fresh warning shot at the Federal Government, issuing a 14-day ultimatum to address long-standing grievances or face another round of strikes that could cripple the academic calendar nationwide. The decision, announced after an emergency […]
By IFEOMA IZUCHUKWU AS Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshapes the way information is produced and consumed, experts are warning that West Africa risks becoming a fertile ground for AI-generated fake news—unless urgent action is taken. At the close of the ECOWAS Parliament’s 2025 Second Extraordinary Session in Port Harcourt, media and ICT specialists called on lawmakers […]
By DAVID JOHN-FLUKE An Economy of Desperation WHEN Temitope Afolabi’s husband faced imprisonment over a ₦48 million debt, she turned to surrogacy to save her family. Paid just over ₦2.2 million for carrying another couple’s child, she was promised transportation, accommodation, and medical support. But in reality, she was underpaid, overworked, and left with serious […]
By REVEREND FRANK CHIKANE, via KADARIA AHMED THE World Council of Churches (WCC), representing over half a billion Christians worldwide, finally spoke with moral clarity in June. At its Johannesburg meeting, the Central Committee condemned Israel’s apartheid system, demanded sanctions, divestment, and an arms embargo, and called for an end to occupation and the Gaza […]
By DAVID JOHN-FLUKE THE courtroom in Abuja was tense on Friday as Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court paused proceedings to consider whether Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), should be allowed treatment at the National Hospital. What appears on the surface as a routine medical request […]
By TOSI ORE EIGHT months after the Federal Government approved a 50 percent tariff hike for telecom operators, the pain is now being felt in every corner of Nigeria. What was once a lifeline—data and voice services—has become a burden too heavy for millions of ordinary citizens and small businesses to bear. Subscribers are voicing […]
By AOIRI OBAIGBO ON a rain-soaked morning in Lagos, a writer set aside his daily walk and returned to an old question that has haunted Nigeria for decades: what does it mean to be an intellectual in a society where truth is often an inconvenience? The answer, he insists, is simple yet radical. An intellectual is […]
By DR. JOE OKEI ODUMAKIN TWENTY years after the tragic death of Comrade Chima Ubani, his ideals and the struggles he championed remain as urgent as ever. Ubani, a fearless activist and labour leader, died in 2005 while leading a protest against a fuel price hike—from ₦50 to ₦65 per litre. At the time, his death […]
By FIDELUS ZWANSON NIGERIA’S private charter aviation sector has, for years, been a theatre of fraud. At the centre of it lies the abuse of the Temporary Import Permit (TIP)—a loophole that allows foreign-registered jets to fly freely across our skies while denying the country billions in badly needed revenue. The scandal is not just […]