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Venezuela: It’s the oil, stupid!

United States President Donald Trump has for long fantasised about annexing northern neighbour, Canada, as his country’s 51st state. Now, he’s struck a better deal in the larger hemisphere with Venezuela. The Latino nation with vast oil reserves, estimated to be the world’s largest, is a conquered colony and its natural wealth is pledged to America’s pleasure. It is effectively the rule of might in a world presumed to run on international law espousing respect for mutual sovereignty. President Trump tore up the global rulebook with his country’s attack recently on Venezuela and the capture of its strongman, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and their extradition to the US for trial. Maduro is accused by Trump of running “state sponsored gangs” and facilitating drug trafficking from his country into the US. The 63-year-old was early last week arraigned before a Manhattan judge on charges including “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation and weapons trafficking...
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Disorderly rites of orderlies’ recall

Nigeria is blighted by the ‘big man’ syndrome that modulates everyday conduct of our national affairs. Hence, the 23rd November order by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that police orderlies be recalled from Very Important Persons (VIPs) and reassigned to core policing functions have met with all manners of pushbacks against which the President seems to be holding his ground. The question is: will he hold firm against the pushbacks? Senate President Godswill Akpabio recently mouthpieced the objection by members of the National Assembly (NASS) to the presidential directive. At a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives for presentation of the 2026 national budget by President Tinubu on Friday, 19th November, he said lawmakers were worried that the withdrawal of their police orderlies put them at risk, such that many were hesitant to visit their respective constituency community for the Yuletide out of fear for personal safety. According to him, such concerns compelled th...
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Freedom, finally

 Burkinabe authorities, mid-last week, let go 11 Nigerian soldiers they had taken into custody for alleged violation of that country’s airspace. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) C-130 transport aircraft that was impounded along with the military personnel was also released. Freedom came for the soldiers and aircraft following high-level diplomatic engagement by the Nigerian government with Ouagadougou. Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar, on Wednesday, met with Burkina Faso junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, in the country’s capital. Tuggar, who led a Nigerian delegation, said at a parley with pressmen that the visit was at the instance of President Bola Tinubu. It was on the heels of the Ouagadougou meeting that the freedom deal was announced. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, confirmed on Wednesday night that the aircraft and personnel had been released. The C-130 NAF aircraft carrying nine passengers and two crew members got impounded on 8th December fo...
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Coup by orchestration?

Military coups, in countries where stuff happens, ordinarily are vicious power grabs by armed usurpers to displace sitting governments. These, of course, don’t belong with civilised people. They are a function of political underdevelopment and peculiar to backwater regions of the world. Even in Africa, categorised in the Third World, there is a region notorious for volatility and designated the coup belt. Office holders against whom coups are staged get typically shortchanged and could be in mortal danger, depending on the ruthlessness of those staging the coup against them. There, however, seems to be some novelty to coup making in Guinea-Bissau – a notoriously unstable country in West Africa that has experienced four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, besides multiple attempted coups. Sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, it is one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries with a population of approximately 1.9million. Its poll results are often contested, and t...
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When opposition is jinxed

Much unlike in the golden years of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who was fondly called ‘Teacher,’ Tanzania now runs a tainted democracy. Criticisms of the country’s recent general election centred on the restriction of opposition players from participating. President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the first female leader of the East African nation, won a landslide victory in the October 29 poll that was marred by violent protests, an internet shutdown and a brutal clampdown on protesters. President Hassan was declared winner with nearly 98 percent of the votes to secure a second term. In her victory speech, she said the election was “free and democratic” and accused protesters of being “unpatriotic.” Opposition parties, however, rejected the results, calling the vote a mockery of democracy because serious challengers of Hassan were either in prison or barred from running. International observers voiced concern over lack of transparency and widespread turmoil that reportedly left hundreds of people dea...
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Sarkozy goes to jail

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy about now has spent a week in jail, part of a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy to obtain election campaign funds from Libya. The rightwing leader of France from 2007 to 2012 made history as the first former head of a European Union country and French post-World War leader to serve time in prison. His journey from presidency to jail is a thriller.  Sarkozy, 70, arrived at La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday, 21st October, to begin serving his sentence in solitary confinement. He had walked out of his home in a plush area of the French capital earlier in the day, hand-in-hand with his supermodel-turned-singer wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and headed for a police car that fetched him to prison. As he was being driven to the notorious 19th-Century prison, he again protested his innocence. Posting on X, he wrote: “I have no doubt. Truth will prevail. But how crushing the price will have been. With unwavering strength I tell you (French peopl...
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Amotekun and Osun killings

Residents of Akinlalu community in Ife North council area of Osun State are crying for justice over the killing of at least three of their members by operatives of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps, in the state. Amotekun is the local security outfit raised by governments of Southwest states to foster security at the grassroots in complement to operations of the Nigeria Police. Akinlalu residents said an unprovoked attack visited on their community by Amotekun personnel on 30th September resulted in four fatalities and left nine others – mostly women and youths – severely injured. Among those killed were children of the Aro of Akinlalu, Chief Kamorudeen Oyebamiji. Official statements by the police and Amotekun acknowledged three fatalities and fewer injured persons.  According to local accounts, operatives of the security outfit a day previously arrested suspected thieves at a village close to Akinlalu, who managed to overpower the operatives and snatch...
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