Point One

On Monday, 7th September, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio hosted his predecessor, Ernest Bai Koroma, on a reconciliation visit to the State House in Freetown. That was barely 24 hours after Koroma returned to the country from some two and half years of exile in Nigeria. “I am back home. And home will always be home. There will never be any substitute for home,” he said upon his return on Sunday, 6th September, capturing the personal meaning of a homecoming that carried wider political significance for his country. Koroma, who was president from 2007 to 2018, had been living in Nigeria since January 2024 following diplomatic engagements led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to save him from possible jail time over his alleged complicity in a November 2023 armed assault aimed at destabilising the Maada Bio administration. Koroma denied involvement.  Freetown had convulsed with violence on 26th November, 2023, when armed insurrectionists stormed a mil...

 She is a candidate for the Guinness Book of World Records – not just on account of her age, but for the crooked act in which she was reported caught. One hundred and one-year-old granny, Esther Ogunmabo, was lately arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for trading in cannabis.  It marked a world record – though an infamous one – because the oldest person previously  known was retired Australian oral surgeon, Victor Twartz (91 years), who in 2015 was tagged the world’s oldest drug smuggler when he was caught at Sydney Airport with 4.5kilograms of cocaine hidden in bars of soap. He had been manipulated by an online cartel into acting unwittingly as a courier. Centenarian Ogunmabo was apprehended on 15th August in Ilisan, Ogun State, with 90 grams of retail sachets of skunk, a strain of cannabis that she reportedly sold in the community. A statement by NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said the woman, a great-grandmother, told agency opera...

Officially, political gladiators are back on the hustings. Not that they ever left, but now they have legal imprimatur to openly electioneer. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) approved open campaigning towards the forthcoming national elections to kick off from last Wednesday, 19th August, and campaigning for the state elections to commence on 09th September. By the commission’s timetable, the presidential and national legislature elections are scheduled for 16th January, 2027, while the governorship and state legislature polls will hold on 6th February, 2027. Electoral law provides that campaigning by political parties should commence 150 days before election day and terminate 24 hours to the poll. Political parties and candidates flagged off the season with the signing of a peace agreement in Abuja on Tuesday, 08th August. Anchored by the National Peace Committee, the contenders by the accord committed to peaceful and issue-based campaigning, and pledged to shun vi...

Five months after it launched its war against Iran, the United States isn’t anywhere near subduing the Persian state. Worse, Iran is fully emboldened to assert sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz as had effectively blocked the waterway from international shipping. Before the war, Hormuz was where a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transited and was recognised as an international route open to free global traffic. Now, Iran is seeking to toll the strait and has been attacking any vessel passing through without its clearance. And the US hasn’t been able to do much to remedy things.  Washington and Tehran traded claims at the weekend on the status of Hormuz and its availability to international shipping. President Donald Trump plied his repeated narrative that the US had full control of the waterway. In a Truth Social post, he said “the U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” His comment reinforced his earlier assertio...

South African Grammy-winning artiste, Tyla, will no longer hold a concert in Nigeria during her upcoming world tour. She has pulled Lagos from the list of 34 cities she earlier announced for a musical globetrot scheduled for later this year to promote her new album, A*POP. Although there was no reason cited for updating the list, the 24-year-old had faced a clamour to perish the thought of having a show in Nigeria over anti-immigrant aggression in her country. She had scheduled to make a stop in Lagos on 22nd December as part of the world tour. Just before the singer adjusted her itinerary, an online petition titled “Ban Tyla from entering Nigeria until xenophobic attacks stop in South Africa” made the rounds and garnered thousands of signatures. After she unveiled her initial tour plan on social media, Nigerians raised a campaign to forbid her from coming for a performance here because she failed to speak out against xenophobic violence back home. Tyla isn’t the only South African cel...

With the strategy applied in the recent hostage recovery in Oyo State, Nigeria may have hit on a useful template for dealing with the menace of terrorist kidnappings. If adopted and adapted in tackling abduction cases nationwide, the template could help rein in the tyranny of abductors and frustrate allied complicities that have made the crime into a thriving industry.  Forty-four out of 46 pupils and teachers mass-kidnapped by suspected Ansaru terrorists in Oriire council area of Oyo State on 15th May were recovered by security operatives after 56 days in captivity. Two of the kidnapped teachers did not make it back because they were killed by the terrorists while the ordeal lasted. Terrorists belonging to Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, commonly known as Ansaru, had stormed three schools in Oriire local government  area near Ogbomoso, where they abducted 39 pupils and seven teachers including a grammar school principal. An assistant headteacher and a commercial ...