Point One

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...

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...

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...

 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...

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...

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 ...