By C. Don Adinuba

As Bart Nnaji, founder and chairman of the Geometric Power group, Nigeria’s only integrated electricity organization, turns 68 today (Saturday, July 13, 2024), one important lesson our countrymen and women can learn from him is the imperative of matchless optimism. Even when all hope is forlorn and all available evidence points to gloom and doom, Nnaji not only expects the best but also works passionately towards delivering superior performance. At a time when top Western multinationals are leaving Nigeria in droves, Nnaji is demonstrating unparalleled patriotism: he is leading General Electric of the United States, the world’s oldest and largest electricity equipment manufacturing company in the world, to build another power-generating firm in Aba, Abia State. If not for the Federal Government's suspension of power purchase agreements (PPAs) some years ago, the plant would have been completed by now. This is a story for another day.

By Onjefu Okidu

Millions across Nigeria get palpably entertained virtually every day by the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike. His project commissioning-based methodical dance steps cutting through the treacherous Nigerian political pathways speak so much to the present predicaments of the nation. Much more than that, the sound of his astute live band with its sprawling, rich jibe tunes associated with project completion has constantly brought him forth as an enormously courageous man who has all it takes to pull the nation through the predicaments. Undoubtedly, the 57-year-old FCT Minister has made history as the most courageous man in modern Nigerian politics. His relentless focus on official performance, justice, fairness, and equity in recent times therefore deserves some kind attention. As the late American congressman, John Lewis had put it, “you can’t love getting into good trouble, necessary trouble to bring progress, equity and fairness to a people and not be celebrated loudly.” All people of good conscience would agree that the man’s excellently organized vocal intra-PDP protest via the famous G-5 has contributed immensely to securing the unity of Nigeria after the 2023 elections. Not minding partisan media hacks such as Arise TV, most fair minds savor the fact that the fragile Nigerian unity would have been shattered if a Northerner had taken the mantle of presidential leadership from another Northerner after the 2023 elections.

By Azu Ishiekwene

Ten years ago, this article appeared under a different title, “The Debt I Owe.” Professor Olatunji Dare was 70 at the time. Ten years later, on Dare’s 80th birthday on July 17, I’m republishing the article with minor changes.

By Steve Osuji

COGNITIVE BLOCKADE AND CRIPPLING INERTIA: Nigeria continues to slide. All economic indicators are red; some are blipping, indicating danger. Those who know are in deep worry. The populace is in a trance, zombified by a never-seen-before strange situation. But the Presidency, the fulcrum of government continues in its empty braggadocio – they doodle and paper over cracks as the ship of state takes more water and totter.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Senator Shehu Sani's contributions to national commentaries that gained more national traction during his four-year spell at the Senate would soon be shredded if the thrusts of his narratives keep tilting towards serving Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the North. We are told that he is not serving Tinubu - he is saving Nigeria. It is clear he is not saving us from Tinubu. In ancient times, navigators and travellers used the North Star as a way to determine their location and navigate the seas. The North Star survived the circumstances of those times. It is still a symbol of hope and direction, a moral compass, guiding people towards worthy causes.

By Bolanle Bolawole

What you are about to read was written by me and was published in The PUNCH edition of Monday, July 7, 1998; which is 26 years ago, the very day the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Basorun MKO Abiola, died in incarceration in Abuja. I must have scribbled the piece a day or two before Abiola’s death; it is titled “Abiola: Coming home empty-handed?” Enjoy it:

By Azu Ishiekwene

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to the job as an afterthought, yet his days in Number 10 were numbered before he received the ceremonial blessings of King Charles III.

By Hassan Gimba, anipr

This is the continuation of the article of last week, republished as a result of our current "search" for a more viable political system. It should be noted that they were first published over three years ago.

Olujide Mayowa

With the renewed determination of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fight all forms of corruption in a more professional manner and with due regard for propriety, efficiency and respect for the rule of law, it is the expectation of Nigerians that anti-corruption agencies in the country will align with the President’s reinvigorated commitment and discard the toga of media trials and leaks, or being used as instruments of blackmail and character assassination, particularly of public office holders.

By Hassan Gimba

This was first published on September 23, 2019. Considering the recent moves to return Nigeria to regionalism, I see the need to repeat it.

By Bolanle Bolawole

Two strange fires struck in two far-flung areas of Lagos last week; one at the headquarters of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy church at Oregun and the other at the fledgling refinery of Africa’s touted richest man, Aliko Dangote. Who dunnit? If the fire at Christ Embassy can be described as an act of God or the carelessness of one person or the other, that at Dangote’s refinery was really suspicious, coming, as it were, a few days after a top official of the refinery had cried out that they were being frustrated by oil cabals bent on perpetuating the country’s profligacy of importation of refined petroleum products with the concomitant payment of fuel subsidy that has run the country’s balance sheet jaded.

By Ola Awoniyi

About a fortnight ago, the Nigerian media widely reported that the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence recommended, in a report, that the Federal Government should purchase new aircraft for the use of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. The House had in May mandated the Committee to investigate the conditions of the aircraft in the Presidential fleet. That assignment followed a motion earlier debated by the House.