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Pope and death rumour

Little more than a week into his admission to hospital for respiratory ailments, Pope Francis was lately rumoured dead. But the pontiff was not dead. The rumour mill was a product of obfuscation over his health by a habitually secretive Vatican and a restive quest for information by millions of Catholics and Vatican watchers who were concerned about the long absence of the holy father from public view. The pope was admitted to Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, the capital of Italy on 14th February after experiencing breathing difficulties. His condition later worsened, with his bronchitis developing into pneumonia in both lungs. Amidst heavy rumour traffic that he had died, the Vatican News reported last week that the 88-year-old pontiff was resting well and was even showing signs of “slight improvement” in his health condition. “No episodes of asthma-like respiratory distress occurred, and some laboratory tests have shown improvement. The monitoring of his mild kidney insu...
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Merchant of mayhem

It is a ‘doom’ that was foretold, but America made its choice. Now the world, including a large segment of Americans, quakes from the tremor of his bullish swag. United States President Donald Trump is barely a month into his new term, but he has been a wrecking ball demolishing the global order as it was known, and stretching the constitutional borders of his own country’s governance model with imperial fiats. Call him the disruptor-in-chief and you wouldn’t be far off the mark. For a country that for ages was perceived as some refuge for all shades of fugitives excepting criminal ones, Trump came into office promising the largest deportations of  aliens the world has ever seen. He’s been making good on his word. Going by way of executive orders, he has seen to it that many thousands of migrants were airbused away from the ‘land of liberty’ in chains and dehumanised. No fewer than 3,690 Nigerians are marked for that treatment according to a document from the U.S. Immigration and C...
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Ibadan blast and quest for justice

 It lately clocked a year since an explosion ripped through the serene Bodija neighbourhood in Ibadan, leaving fatalities and ruination in its trail. January 16th, 2024 was the fateful day when the tranquility of the highbrow area was shattered at dusk by a deafening blast that sent tremors through the ancient city.  The blast, which was said to have originated from a building located on Aderinola Street, claimed five lives. Nearly 80 others were injured in the incident while scores of houses, vehicles and other items of property were wrecked. Few days after the explosion, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde confirmed findings that the blast was caused by explosives stored in a residential apartment by illegal miners. According to eyewitnesses, the casualties were either first responders to a fire outbreak caused by an electrical surge that first hit the building where explosives were stored, or passersby too close to the site. Ever since the explosion, neighbourhood residents hav...
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Africa in new Trump era

Africa was missing on the radar last Monday as President Donald Trump took the oath of office that heralded his return to the White House. Neither in his guest list nor in his inaugural speech and other speeches shortly after did the continent get any attention. It is only hoped he would come round to picking interest in the axis after he settles into office for his second term. Trump broke with tradition for his re-investiture to the United States presidency by opting for a coronation-style event. Presidential inaugurations in the US used to be a domestic affair: the president and vice-president took their oaths with American officials, past presidents and other local dignitaries present on the steps of the US Capitol building. The public watched from surrounding grounds. Inaugural speeches were typically saved for when the presidents arrived in the White House. But the event last Monday featured on-site inauguration address and was an international affair witnessed by foreign dignita...
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Naira abuse and sacred cows

Naira abuse and sacred cows  George Orwell in his satirical work, Animal Farm, espoused the famous doctrine about all animals being equal, but some being more equal than others. It is a doctrine you find playing out, if to varying degrees and in different shades, in all human societies including Orwell’s own Western society, not just the old communist Soviet society about which he wrote. It is no different in our societal context.  When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) bared its fangs last year to tackle naira abuse, you would think doomsday had dawned for all naira abusers. Welding Section 21 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act 2007, the agency early in April arrested cross-dresser and social media celebrity Bobrisky (real name Idris Okuneye) for defacing naira notes by spraying the currency at a party. Although Okuneye tendered an apology for his indiscretion, he was dragged before a Lagos court that convicted and jailed him for six months without an ...
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Vibes of January 6th

Today is January 6th, a significant day in the United States’ political calendar. It is the day when Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the American senate, must swallow the bitter pill of overseeing a joint session of Congress that will officially certify the victory of President-elect Donald Trump at the election held on 5th November, last year. She would thereby be also certifying her own loss at the poll. Trump as Republican candidate trounced Democratic opponent Harris in the election, dashing her hope of becoming the country’s first female commander-in-chief and securing a return to the White House after he himself had suffered defeat in the 2020 election by outgoing President Joe Biden. Under U.S. law, Congress on the sixth of January following a presidential poll meets at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in a joint session where state electors, known as the electoral college, would present a slate of votes for certification by the national legislature. This procedure forma...
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Councils funds and uses

 Ebonyi State Governor Ogbonna Nwifuru recently set a peculiar benchmark for financial accountability in local government administration. He ordered chairmen of the state’s 13 councils to settle all outstanding salaries and pensions of their workers within 24 hours or hand in their resignation. There was no subsequent report of any council chairman obliging his resignation directive, or of salaries and pensions remaining outstanding. So, his bluff – if you call it that – worked. The Ebonyi governor was reported to have issued the ultimatum on Sunday, 22nd December, at a Christmas party organised for the elderly and widows by the state government in Abakaliki, the state capital. Addressing some 5,000 attendees at the party, he frowned on a situation whereby most local government areas had failed to pay staff salaries for November and December, saying the development was unacceptable. He described delayed payment of salaries and pensions to council workers in the state as worrisome, ...
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