Public Affairs Analyst

Introduction There is an adage that says “where there is no law, there is no sin”. In trying to regulate human behaviour, every society has a set of laws, codes, regulations aimed at punishing wrongdoing so as to serve as deterrent to others who may want to indulge in such crimes. As the Americans say, “if you do the crime, you do the time”. It is essentially in order to moderate human behaviour that all civilised societies set up administration of justice procedures and structures. So, there is the police, courts and prisons. Anyone who commits crime is arrested, investigated and if found guilty by competent court of law is sent to prison or asked to pay fine in lieu of going to jail. Even in the days of yore, before the advent of the modern adjudicatory systems, the traditional rulers supported by kingmakers and or council of chiefs perform the role of executive, legislature and judiciary.   They rule, formulate laws, hold court sessions in their palaces, mete out punishmen...

As of Thursday, information sourced from the World Health Organisation website showed that there were 465,915 confirmed cases of coronavirus, out of which 21,031 deaths were recorded across 199 countries.   In Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said there were 42 confirmed cases in the country. A tweet from NCDC said, “As of 1pm on March 24, there were 42 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria – two discharged, one death.” Some very important personalities in the country also tested positive to the virus. They include the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State and a son of the former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The global economy has been impacted negatively due to the pandemic and it is predicted that the economy of many affected countries will go into recession, if not outright depression. Many manufacturing companies have shut down production. Some countries, such as Italy and Spain are o...

  “Consequently, not less than 1,000 APCs, 250,000 assault rifles/corresponding ammunition, 2,000,000 tear gas canisters/smoke grenades 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, 774 operational drones, among others, (are needed) to cover the length and breadth of the nation.” – The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, at the House of Reps public hearing on Feb 25, 2020 There is no gainsaying the fact that one of Nigeria’s major challenges is insecurity of lives and property. For over a decade, the country has been battling with insurgency in the North-East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.   In the North-West, particularly in Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara states, banditry has been the order of the day for quite some time now. The North Central, especially Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Kogi states, has been the hotbed of clashes between farmers and herders. In spite of the 2009 amnesty programme of the Federal Government, militancy bordering o...

One of the basic necessities of life is clothing. Others include food and shelter. I for one like to dress well, even as a child with very few cloths, I like to dress responsibly. I am aware dressing has a set of rules in all culture. However, not everyone is familiar with all the rules while there is also no unanimity of opinion on some of the dress codes. There is what is called “dressing to match”. This has and is still creating confusion all over the world. There are issues around colour combination, what tie goes with a particular mode of dressing, what cap fits a particular style of dressing and so on and so forth. I try to respect dressing codes as much as I can. However, my confusion stems from the fact that there seems to be no unanimity about dressing styles. I was told for instance that it is wrong to wear socks on native dress. Says who? I have seen many people including well educated elites do that. In Yoruba land where I come from if you wear ‘buba and Sokoto’ witho...

On Monday, March 9, 2020, Nigeria’s Health Minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire confirmed the second case of coronavirus infection in Nigeria. This was allegedly from the Italian index case discovered on February 27. I pray fervently that this Covid-19 will not get to epidemic level it has got to in China, South Korea, Iran and Italy. A scary news report yesterday in this newspaper shows that Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte issued unprecedented nationwide measures, telling his citizens to “stay home”, banning public gatherings and suspending all sporting events, including Serie A football matches.   France’s Culture Minister Franck Riester also became the latest high-profile official to test positive to the virus. Recall that Iran’s vice president for women and family affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, as well as 23 Members of Iranian Parliament have been reported to have tested positive to the deadly disease. In fact, as at Monday, March 9, 2020, Iran has recorded a total of 237 deaths....

How genuine are those certificates you’re parading? I mean, can those your academic and non-academic credentials pass forensic audit tests? It is heart rending that virtually on weekly basis there are news reports of some very important personalities being busted for using fake academic credentials or other forged documents. The latest was the immediate past Director General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research. This newspaper in its Sunday, March 1, 2020 reported thus: “A former acting Director-General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, Lagos, Mr. Chima Igwe, may have defrauded government of millions of naira and committed perjury before his recent ouster by the institute’s governing board. Igwe named a university in Benin Republic, Universite d’Abomey Calavi, as where he earned a PhD not long ago. The Anambra State indigene was removed not too long ago after he was indicted in a report by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offence...