Point One

 A prayer and fasting programme recently called by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security set many tongues wagging. Perhaps so because the nation is far from being food secure, and many apparently wondered if prayer warfare was a nuclear policy option government was adopting as a way out. The ministry swiftly backpedaled on the prayer programme in the face of criticisms. But it is doubtful anyone holds that the divine has no place utterly in human affairs. So, there was more to the jibes against the prayer initiative than just godlessness. It all began with an internal memo in the agric ministry that got leaked on social media. The memo dated 11th June, 2025 and signed by the Director of Human Resource Management, Mrs. Adedayo Modupe, invited ministry staff to participate in a prayer programme themed ‘Divine Intervention for Protection and National Development’ and scheduled to hold on three consecutive Mondays from 16th June. The circular was addressed to all direct...

Tech billionaire Elon Musk may have just learnt a lesson most moneymen already imbibed. In a tiff between deep purse and political power, it is the latter that prevails. And that is because it is political power that fosters the policy environment in which moneymen make their money. You do not by reason of your enormous resource endowment trade tackles with political power that oils the wheels of your fortune and hope to remain fortunate. Wealth is power, but political power is greater power. Musk, the world’s richest man, backed down from tantrums in an ego duel with United States President Donald Trump over the last couple of weeks into humbled regrets. He lost billions of dollars in net worth from that voyage of impulse. Even though he is far from being ruined – he remains the world’s richest with a $334.5billion fortune – he came up against a bluff by Trump that he couldn’t call. Rather, he softened up and sought a make-up that the American leader was in no mood to readily oblige. ...

 Reported assault on a vice-principal in Ondo State for daring to stop a pupil from cheating in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) shows just how audacious examination malpractice has gotten in our country. No longer is the deed done shamefacedly in secret. Cheats have acquired a sense of entitlement, and their sponsors a brazen disregard for conventional ethics. We are steeped in an age of the death of societal morality and in need of a sure compass to halt the slide and retrace back to the path of high probity.  In the Ondo State incident, a vice-principal identified simply as Mr. Rotifa was, penultimate Friday, battered to near unconsciousness by thugs suspected to be acting on the instructions of parents of a Senior Secondary 3 pupil of Complete Child Development College, Awule in Akure. The pupil had against school rules taken an android phone into the exam hall, apparently to cheat, prompting the vice-principal to confiscate the phon...

 There were two occasions within the last couple of weeks when pupils sitting their West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) had to make do with dim illumination at nightfall to get through particular papers. The exams being conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) began on April 24th and is expected to conclude on June 20th, this year. On Wednesday, last week, 28th May, candidates in Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Benue and Taraba states, among others, sat their exams till about 9p.m. on the average and close to midnight in Taraba particularly. The test at issue was Part II and III (Objectives and Theory) of the English Language paper. Candidates had taken Part I of the paper (Oral English) in the morning and were waiting to sit the remainder in the early afternoon, only to encounter a delay by which the question paper did not arrive most centres until past twilight. The exam held at between 7p.m. and 9p.m. in many places, while in others like Taraba, ...

Pope Leo XIV formally began his papacy on 18th May, 2025, with an inauguration mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. World leaders, including Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, made the event that offered a rare platform for diverse – even adversarial – interests across the world to come together for a common purpose. The ascension of the 267th Catholic pontiff heralds a papacy dedicated to world peace, as Leo has made clear that would form his major agenda. The new pope took to the world stage soon after his election on 8th May with the message of peace. He has his mission cut out. The church under his leadership, as he envisions, will play the conciliator in a world ridden with conflict and hatred. His first words to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on the day he was elected pope were: “Peace be with all of you.” His utterances ever since echoed that theme.  In an audience few days after his election with members of the eastern Catholic churches, many of them based ...

Frontline examination body, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has doubtless achieved much mileage in dealing malpractices in exams a fatal blow. This it has done with the use of technology by way of computer-based testing in its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME). The body, last weekend, formally announced the results of the 2025 UTME sat by some 1.9 million candidates between 24th April and 5th May, this year. Its Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, said results of 39,834 candidates were being withheld over suspicion of infractions that were undergoing interrogation by the board. He reaffirmed JAMB’s commitment to eliminate all forms of malpractice, stating that 1,957,000 candidates were verified to sit for the exam while 71,705 were absent. “The 2025 UTME showed a prevalence of some particular types of infractions, which suggests systemic vulnerabilities or gaps in registration and examination administration and/or monitoring,” Oloyede said inter al...