Point One

Like some wild flood determined to overwhelm, terrorists have laid a siege on Nigeria. They strike at will, and make arrogant boasts about what they’ve done and what they would yet do. Besides mounting casualties of their deadly exploits, constituting an onerous burden on the nation’s conscience, the precision of their daring assaults on the country’s sovereignty and security integrity – seemingly without restraint or hard retribution by government – is unsettling. Early last week, two officers and some soldiers attached to the 7 Guards Brigade of the Nigerian Army were reported killed in an ambush by terrorists in Bwari, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The military personnel on patrol duties were said to have been ambushed after they visited the Nigerian Law School in Bwari, following a distress call from authorities there that terrorists had dropped a letter indicating an imminent attack on the school. According to reports, the officers and soldiers were at the law s...

Two Saturdays ago, i.e. on 16th July, Osun State residents headed to the poll. They were to make their choice from among 15 contenders of who to hold the reins of governorship for a fresh four-year term that gets underway from Sunday, 27th November, 2022. The election was widely rated a good outing by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and it witnessed an average turnout by voters at 42.16 percent turnout of nearly two million registered voters in the state. Besides the good showing by INEC, the poll marked a high point of electorate civility in Nigerian elections. It ran largely peacefully and without incidents of violence that typified most elections across this country held before it. Although 15 political parties fielded candidates for the poll, it was in reality a two-horse race between Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who had sought fresh mandate for a second term, and Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)...

With the multi-headed energy crisis presently choking the breath out of Nigerians, you hardly can resist a feeling of déjà vu. We have been here before, and at about this same juncture of our national life. The cause factors may slightly differ but the nestling turf is essentially the same – leadership failure. In the closing moths of the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, Nigeria was in economic disarray. Government was de facto in abdication though de jure in office. All sectors of the economy grounded to a halt as an energy crisis hobbled the country. From the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and across the 36 states nationwide, there were reports that many public and private institutions had closed shop in the face of a crippling fuel shortage and perennial electricity blackout – sources of energy needed to power their operations. Worse hit were hospitals, schools, banks, transport operators and telecoms firms, which either altogether shelved services or i...

 Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle has apparently reached tolerance limits over persisting insecurity that hobbles his state and exerts a heavy toll on residents, and he isn’t pulling punches any longer to tackle down the menace. His latest recourse was a call on the people to get their own guns for self-defence against bandits. He rallied the residents to apply for licence from the police and acquire guns and other handy weapons to defend themselves. In a statement early last week, the Zamfara government declared its readiness to facilitate acquisition of guns and other weapons by state residents for self-defence.  “Government has henceforth directed individuals to prepare and obtain guns to defend themselves against the bandits, as government has directed the state commissioner of police to issue licences to all those who qualify and are willing to obtain guns to defend themselves,” the statement said, adding: “Government is ready to facilitate people, especially our fa...

Controversial Catholic cleric and Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka, seems unable to stay out of the boiler room in his priestly calling, no thanks to an unruly tongue. It is one season, one trouble for him with the Catholic Church, and those troubles often derive from his unique penchant for vocally pitching into partisan frays where an overseer’s reserve and dispassion would have made better judgment. Mbaka is one man who fights battles on many fronts – outside of his calling with partisan interests, and within his calling with the Catholic establishment. Call him a political priest and you’re the deal. Against the run of stiff disposition and shyness from murky politics that characterises the clergy, he swims in the murk and openly pitches camp with, or against political actors as negates conventional priestly neutrality. By all accounts, he falls into a class of his own. Not for the first time, Mbaka’s Adoration parish is pr...

 A siege by gunmen on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo town, penultimate Sunday, left scores of worshippers dead and many others severely injured. Owo is the headquarters of Owo council area of Ondo State and native town of Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu. The church itself is vantagely located in the environs of the palace of the town’s monarch, the Olowo of Owo. It was the softest conceivable target for a most heartless band of terrorists. The occasion was Pentecost Sunday – a solemn event for Christians in commemorating the inauguration of the Early Church – when many adherents endeavour to partake of congregational worship with whole households. At St. Francis, the mass had just ended. The choir was singing the closing hymns, waiting for the priest and other officiating ministers to process out of the church, when the first gunshot rang out. Seconds later, there was another gunshot, and soon it became a rattle of random shots. By then, wardens at the entrance were...

 A dawn stampede penultimate Saturday at an outreach programme organised by a new generation church, King’s Assembly in Port Harcourt, resulted in on-site death of no fewer than 31 would-be congregants. The church is based at the Government Reservation Area of the Rivers State capital, but it arranged to stage the event tagged ‘Shop for Free’ at the Port Harcourt Polo Club – a bigger facility – to accommodate the anticipated sizeable crowd. Its objective for the event was to gift items, including foodstuff, to help the underprivileged. As it turned out, the volume of intending beneficiaries anticipated by the church was grossly underestimated and their zeal for the freebies at stake tragically underrated. For an event that was to kick off at about 9a.m. on Saturday, intending beneficiaries began massing at the Polo Club’s gate from Friday night and into the early hours of Saturday according to reports. Rivers State police command said the people who had gathered struggled to gain e...