Category: Opinion - Page 2 - People&Politics

Dec

15

2024

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By People&Politics

Gillis-Harry And The PETROAN Fuel Distribution Initiative

Opinion

By SHEDDY OZOENE I first met Prince Billy Gillis-Harry in September last year. Both of us had taken the United Nigeria morning flight from Abuja to Port Harcourt, from where I would proceed by road to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for the quarterly Standing Committee meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. While we waited for our luggage on arrival in Port Harcourt, we exchanged pleasantries and discussed the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, a name I got to know for the first time that day. The moment he learnt I was travelling through PH, he started playing…

Dec

11

2024

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(OPINION) A Cockroach Of Many Seasons, By PAT UTOMI

Opinion

The book I am currently working on looks at how politicians underdeveloped Africa. It is to put in perspective Walter Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ and not to question the merits of his thesis. Divisive plays on emotion constitute one way the politicians keep us poor. Whether they are conscious of it or not is another matter. As a cockroach baited from both sides through many seasons of angst, I can feel the looming danger. By PAT UTOMI I read with much appreciation and delight Festus Adedayo’s column on Abati and Davido as cockroaches. I do not know how they…

Dec

08

2024

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EFCC: Between Consistency And Trust

Opinion

By SHEDDY OZOENE Earlier in the month, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, obtained a ruling on a final forfeiture of an estate in Abuja containing 753 units of duplexes. The ruling of Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, on Monday, effectively transfers the estate measuring 150,500 square metres on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja, to the federal government. It is easily the single largest asset recovery by the agency since its inception in 2003, a landmark and cheery news coming from an organization that has for some time faltered on its mandate. Beyond the celebration of that landmark,…

Dec

05

2024

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By Felix Duru Mbah

N5.2b contracts payment: Again, FCT local contractors urge Tinubu to order Wike to pay

BREAKING, News, Opinion, PoliticsNEWS, OPINION, Politics

Three weeks after local contractors of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), owed about N5.2billion by the Administration, penned an open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over their plight, they claim no word has come to them yet from Aso Villa on the vexed matter. The contractors also claim that the payment bill is for public welfare contracts given, procured, executed and certified for payment in the life of the administration of current FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike. These include jobs in school and hospital equipment, furniture in Minister's conference room, drainage and others.However, they remain downcast that the Minister…

Dec

03

2024

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GRANDMA WIKINA AT 90: A Testimony In Steely Resolve

Opinion

By TUNDE OLUSUNLE Just days after the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970, disaster struck in the home of Wikina-Emmah in Kono at the heart of Ogoniland in Rivers State. Ebenezer Saro-Wikina, eldest son of Wikina-Emmah, suddenly passed. The Ogoni were among the nationalities affected by the civil war. Multitudes from the ethnic group previously sought refuge in the area delineated as Biafra by the secessionists. They were glad to return to their ancestral homes at the end of hostilities. Ebenezer Saro-Wikina went through the stress and drudgery of "crossing the Red Sea," literally. He got back…

Dec

02

2024

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By People&Politics

Passport Office And The Home Delivery ‘Scam’

Opinion

By SHEDDY OZOENE Since he assumed office as Nigeria’s Minister of the Interior on August 21, 2023, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has been promoted as a whizkid and a strategic planner who would introduce innovations in the ministry. At just 42, he ranks among the youngest ministers and one of the hot-heads that would stand out within the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Fittingly, the ministry of the Interior in which he supervises five key parastatals – among them the Security and Civil Defence Corps; the Nigerian Correctional Services; the Immigration Service and the Federal Fire Services - is one of the…

Nov

30

2024

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President Tinubu Lays An Egg! – By STEVE OSUJI

Opinion

By STEVE OSUJI "If an African child is assured of a pint of milk in the classroom, a good sandwich or one egg daily, there will be no fear of learning."-- President Bola Tinubu in France Who writes the president’s speeches? Who manages his thoughts and actions? Do we have a strategy team in the presidency? How do we prepare for huge events like the current state visit to France? EXPRESSO asks these and so many other questions over Tinubu's current visit to France. It's obvious that the current presidency is puny in terms of knowledge stock, experience and mental…

Nov

28

2024

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Dismantling Nigeria’s Criminal Political Substructure

Opinion

Dismantling Nigeria’s criminal political substructure: This criminal substructure, the foundation upon which the voodoo political superstructure is erected, is the reason why rather than making progress, every new administration inflicts much more horrendous misery on the populace. No progress can be made in the circumstance unless this fatuous estate of criminality is dismantled by taking politics out of the hands of the quislings who are bingeing on our collective patrimony and daring us to do our worst. It is a challenge we must take frontally, standing on our feet or suffer the ignominy of perpetual humiliation on our knees. By…

Nov

27

2024

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By People&Politics

Reuben Abati Was In Error, By STEVE OSUJI

Opinion

EXPRESSO_Intervention》》By STEVE OSUJI The bully in the house: Dr. Reuben Abati is a public intellectual of no mean repute. A brilliant mind, a well-read fellow, a columnist, editorialist and lately, a news talk show host on Arise Television. For full disclosure, we were both denizens of the famous Rutam House, home to The Guardian newspapers stable.In the early 1990s, he was on the editorial board while yours truly was Assistant Editor with the weekly journal, The African Guardian. This was over 30 years ago. Reuben is in the news again. Yes, he trended not quite long ago when he openly…

Nov

25

2024

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For Daniel Bwala, A Baptism Of Fire

Opinion

By SHEDDY OZOENE Since his appointment as Special Adviser to the President, Media and Public Communications on November 14, Daniel Bwala has moved from one controversy to the other. After what many consider a betrayal of Atiku Abubakar whom he worked for as presidential campaign spokesman in 2023, the appointment was for him a dream come true. He had spent so much time since Bola Tinubu became president, trying to justify his return to the All Progressives Congress he serially disparaged and a President he so virulently opposed as candidate during the campaign. With the appointment, there was reason for…