Point One

Eight weeks into hostilities by the United States and Israel against Iran, the endgame is up in the air and the effects yet crushing on the global economy. Nigerians aren’t being spared. A two-week ceasefire struck on 8th April between Washington and Tehran expires this Wednesday, as the gladiators prospect for enduring truce terms. Israeli attacks on Iran’s proxy militant group, Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon had threatened the ceasefire, but that has been defused with a 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon that took effect last Thursday. Pakistan led efforts in bringing the combatants to the negotiation table, and its officials were as at late last week running the rounds between American and Iranian authorities and consulting with other Gulf states that have a stake in the war, so to get the foes talking again. U.S. President Donald Trump voiced optimism that the war would end soon, and that a fresh round of talks would yield “amazing” results. That was cold comfort, though, beca...

 When it rains, it pours. Hostilities persisted last week in the war between the United States and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other, despite a shift of deadline by US President Donald Trump for a threatened Armageddon. Bluster ruled the turf on both sides, and you never really know how close to an endpoint the war is. Meanwhile, the international community roiled in the cost of living crisis the war has foisted on global economy. Israel reported late in the week that it had killed a senior Iranian military figure in targeted air strike. Admiral Alireza Tangsiri was commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy and reportedly was the engine room of Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command, confirming the killing in a post on X, advised Iranians serving in the IRGC navy to “abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.” Washington boasted that Iran had neither a navy left at this point nor a navy l...

 Some things don’t go as projected. When United States President Donald Trump led his country to tag-team with Israel in attacking Iran a couple of weeks ago, he thought it would be an easy pie like Venezuela: go in, smash things up, expropriate some loot and exit tidily. Then, live ever after relishing the booty from the conquest. The US military strike in Venezuela on 3rd January, codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve, resulted in the capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife Cilia Flores, to face drug-related charges in American courts. For icing, Washington commandeered Venezuela’s vast oil wealth after influencing the installation of someone it found acceptable as Maduro’s replacement. The operation by which Maduro was captured lasted under an hour and it recorded no casualty on US side. But that was Venezuela. Iran is an entirely different pie that Trump took on in a military joint venture with Israel that was codenamed Operation Epic Fury. Nearly four weeks on,...

United Kingdom’s royal family got roiled in a scandal lately and it opened up for justice to take its course. The younger brother of King Charles and reportedly the favourite son of the late Queen Elizabeth, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, got arrested and “released under investigation” by the British police in connection with his ties to American sex offender, the late Jeffrey Epstein. His royal blood did not count to keep him out of the reach of justice, making him the first member of the British royal family to be taken into police custody in modern times. Association with Epstein became a taboo, having been accused of building a network of hundreds of girls and young women for sexual exploitation. Many of the victims were made to travel around with him and stay at his private island in the Caribbean. Epstein was initially sentenced to 18-month imprisonment in 2008 after pleading guilty to state charges – one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from...

Lobbyists seeking to overturn the ban by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on alcohol in sachets and pet bottles less than 200ml are connecting deep within government machinery. They lately got the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to issue a restraining order on NAFDAC that seemed like the handiwork of a fifth column. NAFDAC began implementing the ban on production and sale of alcohol packaged in sachets and polyethene terephthalate (pet) bottles less than 200ml on January 21, this year, after a five-year grace period allowed producers to phase out the containers. But distillers, food and beverages sector workers and umbrella labour unions as well as civil society allies have plied pressure against the policy, arguing that the decision would cripple  investments and result in job losses. They urged NAFDAC to reconsider the ban in the interest of the economy and local investors. NAFDAC, however, insisted on sta...

Remembering Murtala Muhammed It was exactly 50 years ago last Friday that former Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, got slain in a botched coup. Murtala came to power on 29th July, 1975, following the ouster of General Yakubu Gowon in a bloodless coup while attending the 12th summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Kampala, Uganda. He was assassinated 13th February, 1976, in a bloody coup attempt led by Lieutenant-Col. Bukar Suka Dimka, just 200 days into his nascent regime. His personality and leadership style were compelling reference points in Nigeria’s nationhood trajectory, and the 50th anniversary of his killing marked a significant milestone for recollection of the things he stood for. Murtala got killed, aged 37, as one of the easiest targets of his ilk that assassins could hope to take on. He was a reputed man of war, but was shorn of all paraphernalia of war when agents of death sprang an ambush on him in a most cowardly fashion. On the fateful day as...