In the early hours of Wednesday, June 18, 2025, a band of terrorists attacked the Naval Base Lake Chad in Baga, Borno State, targeting military equipment at the base, including swamp buggies recently made available by the Governor of Borno State. A terrible mistake. Naval personnel at the base effectively repelled the attack, neutralising several of the attackers and leaving many others injured. The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, visited the base days after the aborted attack to express gratitude to the officers and men of the base and boost morale. If the terrorists thought this…
Author: Musa Ilallah
The Nigerian Navy ended 2024 on a triumphant note across its famed “trinity of action” of surveillance, response capability and law enforcement, under the inspiring leadership of Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, the 22nd indigenous Chief of Naval Staff. On January 6, 2025, the Navy’s landmark anti-oil-theft operation, Delta Sanity, will celebrate its first anniversary. A week earlier, Vice Admiral Ogalla and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri PhD, launched the operation’s second phase, which will feature ramped-up aerial surveillance through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Armed Attack Drones. In the 12 months since the launch…
The news that the Kaduna based self claimed social crusader and activist, Mahdi Shehu has been arrested by the state security service officials, DSS did not come as a surprise to most people. Rather, it only confirms that the man has been behaving like a loose cannon for years for his baseless and unsubstantiated claims. After President Bola Tinubu’s visit to France at the instance of President Emmanuel Macron, the rumour mill was agog that France which has fallen out of favour with some West African countries was planning to set up a base in Nigeria. Amid the back and…
Solomon Selcap Dalung is a Nigerian politician who served as Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports from November 2015 to May 2019 under the PMB administration. Before then, he had served as a lecturer in the Nigerian Prisons Service at the University of Jos and as Chairman of Langtang South Local Government in Plateau State. From all his sojourn into politics, what is of most interest is the controversy that marked his tenure as a Federal minister up to and beyond the time, he was thrown out of office by President Muhammadu Buhari for lack of capacity and focus. Shortly…
Yakubu Dogara’s refreshing take on the tax reform bills, the North’s economic potential, and the way forward I watched the presentation by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives at the Channels Television town hall session on the tax reform bills with great interest, and came away very impressed by the arguments that he made. Since he left the House in 2023, the former Speaker has been quiet. Until this very impressive performance on a national stage, delivering deep truths about Northern Nigeria and the massive economic opportunity before it. He is worth quoting extensively. He addressed various issues…
I would like to express a totally different view from Elder Statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, who did not get the correct facts when he wrote, in a letter to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, that the former Chief Justice, CJN, Walter Onnonghen was removed from office because, in his own words, “in order to get away with ‘the mess and mischievous things they wanted to carry out’ during the 2019 presidential election” Contrary to this assertion, the fact of the matter is that the former CJN failed to declare his assets as required by the Constitution.…
The news that the 60,000 barrels per day first Port Harcourt refinery has come to life after years of gulping millions of dollars in the name of repairs and maintenance has not come to most Nigerians as a big surprise. After several assurances and of re-igniting the flames at the refinery from the days of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’adua, Jonathan Goodluck, Muhammadu Buhari and now Bola Tinubu, Nigerians are now looking forward to a better deal in the pricing of PMS and other bye products from the Dangote and now the Port Harcourt 1 refinery. President Bola Tinubu while…
Saturday November 16th this year was particularly memorable to me as i read through an opinion piece by a Daily Trust columnist titled “The deafening silence around Kolmani oil fields”. This is simply because the columnist spoke the minds of most Nigerians who saw hope in the fortunes of Kolmani oil fields but regretably, staring ‘the faces of residents of many towns and villages around the Kolmani oil fields in Bauchi and Gombe states, and other well meaning Nigerians, a dejection, disappointment and a feeling of abandonment.’ No one, not even naysayers, doubts the fact that Former President Buhari had…
To an average northerner who is 40 years and above today, the name General Zamani Lekwot rings a bell and makes one recall his alleged involvement in the killings, displacement of people, and destruction of properties of hundreds of Hausa-Fulani-Muslims as an aftermath of the riot in Zangon Kataf Town in Southern Kaduna state in 1992. Following this crisis, the Kaduna State Executive Council set up an eight-member committee to draft a White Paper on the two reports by the Justice Rahila Cudjoe Commission of Inquiry into the Zangon-Kataf riots of February and May 1992. General Zamani Lekwot, along with…
Let’s begin this conversation by recalling that a bill to establish the Nigerian Coast Guard, which has scaled second reading in the Nigerian Senate and sponsored as a private member bill by Senator Wasiu Eshilokun (APC- Lagos), recently led the debate at the Senate’s plenary on the general principles of the bill. Leading the debate, Senator Eshilokun said the bill sought to establish the Nigerian Coast Guard to be charged with the responsibility of securing maritime zones within Nigeria. First, it is a breach of due process. The Bill seeks to establish a Coast Guard as a military service and…
For the benefit of an average Nigerian, The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to governments of low-and middle-income countries to pursue capital projects. The Bank was established along with the International Monetary Fund at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. Regrettably, The World Bank in its latest ‘Nigeria Development Update’, (NDU), themed, ‘Staying the course: Progress amid pressing challenges’, painted a grim picture of how policy inconsistency and contracting the oil sector conspired to lower the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by about one-third between 2015 and 2022. The WB further stated that…
Going by the antecedents of a Nigerian-born journalist, David Hundeyin for sending anyone to the cleaners who refused to succumb to his blackmail antics, it is not suprising that he has recently turned his smear campaign against the APC administrations of former President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. While calling them as ‘lackeys of the West’ who were imposed upon Nigerians to strictly implement policies that promote Western interests in Nigeria and the subregion as part of the West’s war against China’s burgeoning global political and economic influence, Hundeyin in his X handle recently further allege that…
It is not surprising that the no-nonsense Professor of eschatology, Ishaq Akintola, Founder and Executive Director of Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC widely known for speaking the truth and depending the rights of the masses has again patriotically spoken the unbiased truth to put the records straight. Professor Ishaq was reacting through a press statement titled ‘BUHARI DEFEATED BOKO HARAM, NOT JONATHAN’ on the controversy surrounding the truth about which Nigerian President defeated Boko Haram. He reaffirmed that it was ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, not his predecessor, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan who defeated Boko Haram. He described the claim by Senator Ali Ndume…
There has been an uproar in some quarters over the decision of the National Assembly to approve the securitization of Nigeria’s ‘Ways and Means’, (W&M) loans to the Federal Government, currently estimated at N7 trillion, ₦22.7 trillion or N30 trillion, in an arrangement that placed the loans on a tenor of 40 years with a moratorium on principal repayment of three years and an interest rate of 9% per annum. “Ways and Means” is how a government incurs debt by borrowing funds from the country’s central bank in order to address budget shortfalls. It must be noted that the adoption…
The visceral hatred for Buhari by a so-called Northern Think Tank, led by one Mohammed Yakubu is making many observers of politics lose their interest in a group that initially set out to promote the interests of the Northern region in the context of a united Nigeria. In their desperation to ingratiate themselves to the Bola Tinubu administration, they find themselves laying the blame for everything that is wrong in the country, from poverty to disease; corruption and crime and, ridiculously, blaming Buhari for matters arising from fuel subsidy withdrawal and the Naira devaluation. Reading their frequently issued press statements,…
A former National Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Lukman’s allegation that the APC and the duo of former President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Bola Tinubu ruined the country, is not only uncharitable but also an insincere and malicious assessment of the successes recorded in the country since 2015. It is very sad that Lukman, in a statement recently in Abuja, further said: The hard truth is that both former President Buhari and President Tinubu have turned out to be self-centred and unable to produce the needed leadership to pull the country out of its…
Until recently, not much is known and or heard about Mr. Zemedeneh Negatu and the truth about the controversial Nigeria Air project that followed due process and was subsequently approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC under former President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigeria Air project stepped up by former President Buhari, would have been one of the largest foreign direct investments in Nigeria in recent years outside of the oil and gas sector, but for the unpatriotic war against it by local airliners and their collaborators. The tender submission for the airline went through numerous tender processes and evaluations through due…
Nigeria is set to implement something unprecedented: a 70 percent Tax or Levy on a ‘windfall’ profit that accrued to commercial banks following last year’s significant devaluation of the Naira—a devaluation arising from a series of significant economic reform initiatives by President Tinubu’s administration. The banks had been holding substantial foreign currency assets, which multiplied instantly in local currency value following the devaluation. A Nigerian newspaper carried out an analysis of Nigeria’s five biggest banks (the famed F-U-G-A-Z) and found that the foreign exchange revaluation gains they declared in H1 2023 – amounting to a combined 1.3 Trillion Naira –…
Since taking oath of office on May 29th last year as Governor of Jigawa state, Umar Namadi Danmodi, FCA, has carefully and strategically taken agriculture to the next level as one of his priority areas aimed at upscaling farming and youth empowerment to the next level. Committing his time and state resources to the agricultural sector of the state is no big deal for Governor Danmodi. To boost farming and its value chain across the length and breadth of the state, the government procured 60 tractors for 27 Local Government Areas in addition to securing a $250,000 (N350m) loan from…
It’s no longer news that the N15.6 trillion estimated for the 740km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project embarked upon by PBAT has continued to generate interests among Nigerians because of the administration’s infirmal and odd way of engaging a non experienced contractor, Hitech Construction company to execute it which is a breach of the norm in contract awards in the country.. It will be recalled that the project was first awarded by former President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2014 for the 10-state, 22-station project to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC at a cost of $11.97bn, before his administration ended abruptly.…
While Nigerian Muslims were busy with the Ramadan fasting and making last minute arrangements to celebrate this year’s Eid el Fitr with pomp and pageantry in the midst of scorching hard times brought about by PBAT’s withdrawal of fuel and energy subsidies, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu was quoted by the Ministry’s spokesman as saying “that there was no progress on the Siemens project since the death of the late Abba Kyari. The lie is in the claim that the death of Abba Kyari stalled the implementation of the Siemens project”. For the records, Abba Kyari died on April…
As Deputy Governor in 2023 and APC’s 2023 Gubernatorial Candidate, Mallam Umar Namadi, FCA alias Danmodi had told every Jigawa indigene who cares to listen that “the task before us is to build a stronger, smarter Jigawa that works for everyone,” as his Strategic campaign oath. Titled “My agenda for greater Jigawa, Governor Danmodi had since swung into action to implement his agenda to develop the state beyond imagination. Though it’s no longer news that global development challenges are growing and evolving rapidly in response to the financial difficulties created by the global pandemic, aka Covid 19 and climate change,…
Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio , a Nigerian lawyer and politician and currently Nigeria’s Senate President can be counted as one of the luckiest politicians of our time. A number of reasons can be put forward to depend this assertion. He was born on December 9, 1962. In 2002, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Governor Obong Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom State appointed Akpabio as Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources. By sheer political dexterity and scheming, Akpabio succeeded Attah as Governor of the state in 2007 and served for two terms that ended in 2015. As is the normal, Akpabio got…
Recent negative comments by the suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and deposed 14th Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi on the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari did not come to most Nigerians as a big surprise. SLS’s grouse with PMB is that despite his lobbying for his reinstatement as CBN governor, PMB had refused the entreaties to return Sanusi as the apex Bank’s governor. That is PMB’s crime in the heart of SLS. Sanusi, as social critic has a long history of undoubtedly possessing antecedents of rubbishing anything that he hasn’t been opportuned to add his…
After almost 9 years of leading the country’s chief telecoms regulatory agency, Nigerian Commnications Commission, NCC, its Executive Vice Chairman, EVC/CEO, Professor Umar Dambatta successfully handed over to Dr Garba Maida as the Commission’s new helmsman more then 100 days ago. Since that colourful handover and takeover, Dr Maida had swung into action to contribute his widow’s mite to strengthen the country’s telecom sector. In celebrating his first 100 days in office, Dr Maida seized the opportunity to stylishly roll out his Strategic Vision for the Industry during an engagement with two segments of the public he called “critical stakeholders” which…
Most, if not all Nigerians are of the firm belief that former Finance Minister, Olu Falae’s medicine of Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP introduced during the era of military Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in July 1986 is the foundation upon which the present economic crisis of the country was laid. Undoubtedly, the IMF-World Bank economic policy packages embodied in the structural adjustment programme, SAP provided an overt encouragement to the fostering of an unregulated, dependent capitalist development model, while allowing only a supportive role for the government in a refurbished economic environment of highly reduced government ownership and…
January 16, 2024 was indeed a Special day for former President Muhammadu Buhari for two reasons. First it was the day he was stepping into Abuja since he ‘stepped aside’ and handed over power to his successor, PBAT 232 days ago. Second, it was the day he launched two books on his stewardship of the country after a successful two terms of 4 years each from 2015-2023. On that day the banquet Hall of Nicon Hilton hotel was filled to the brim by associates, some ex members of his cabinet and aides including his VP, Prof Osinbajo and many other…
The World Bank’s Nigeria development update, titled, ‘Turning the Corner: From Reforms & Renewed Hope, to Results,’ in December last yearstated in unambiguous terms that poverty rate in Nigeria had increased to 46 percent in 2023, representing 104 million poor Nigerians. However highlights of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey had revealed that: 63% of persons living within Nigeria, representing 133 million people are multidimensionally poor. In general, the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states of the country. In Nigeria, the poverty alleviation measures implemented so far have focused more on growth,…
“I have, at my behest, arrived at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC to honour the invitation by the anti-graft agency to offer clarifications in respect of some issues that the commission is investigating”, former Nigeria’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq made the remarks in her twitter or X handle last Monday shortly after arriving at EFCC to confer with investigators. Despite the fact that the former minister visits EFCC daily thereafter, reliable sources have cried out that since nothing incriminating has been found implicating her by the contractor, Mr…
No one doubts the fact that media as the fourth estate of the realm today, faces quite a number of challenges including it being used by politicians, anti corruption agencies among others to drag some prominent persons reputation and integrity to the dogs through media trial. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has been fingered as prominent in this enterprise. It recently issued a statement allegedly accusing a minister of laundering N37bn during her tenure in office without a prior formal notification to the ex Minister concerned. This was subsequently followed by a publicly released fresh 72-hour ultimatum to…
