Public Affairs Analyst

It’s about 96 hours to the end of 2023. A lot of remarkable things happened in the outgoing year. The popular axiom says charity begins at home. Let me start the chronicle with a hearty congratulatory message to Punch newspaper which clocked half a century of publication this year.  I am at present reading “Our PUNCH Years”, a book edited by veteran journalist, Lekan Otufodunrin. It was an eyewitness account of 38 former staffers of the newspaper. The book offered a great insight to the topsy-turvy challenges of newspaper publishing in Nigeria. I have been contributing to The PUNCH for 28 years. My first article in this newspaper was, “Saving our universities” published on Friday, November 3, 1995. I became a columnist with this medium in October 2012. Happy golden jubilee to The PUNCH, the most widely read newspaper in Nigeria! 2023 is a peculiar year for Nigeria. The country has two presidents, two sets of governors, two sets of House of Representatives members, two sets of senator

  On Monday, December 18, 2023, a signed agreement to resolve the lingering political crisis in Rivers State surfaced in the media. It was an eight-point resolution reached at the end of about three hours meeting held at the Presidential Villa between the camps of Rivers State governor, Siminalaye Fubara, and that of his estranged godfather, Nyesom Wike. This was the second time the President is mediating in the brewing local political crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta state. Some political watchers said the president shouldn’t have mediated while others believe that Fubara was handed the short end of the stick. Before examining the content of the signed truce, let me attempt a chronicle of the political development that brought about this presidential intervention. On the night of Sunday, October 29, 2023, there was an inferno at the Rivers State House of Assembly complex due to explosives purportedly ignited by unknown arsonists; by the dawn of Monday, October 30, the majority mem

  Stand up for the African champions! What a befitting Christmas and End-of-the-Year gifts to Nigerians! Last Monday, December 11, 2023, I felt proud to be a Nigerian. My compatriots have once again risen to the occasion to burnish the dented image of the country by winning big at the just concluded Confederation of African Football Award Night for 2023. Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, broke a 24-year-old jinx to win the 2023 Men’s Player of the Year. Osimhen triumphed over Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah to win the coveted trophy during the CAF 2023 Awards held in Marrakech, Morocco. In the same vein, Super Falcons forward, Asisat Oshoala, was named the 2023 Women Player of the Year to become the first woman in history to win the award six times. She had previously won it in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022. In other categories, Goalkeeper of the Year (Women) was won by Super Falcon’s goalie, Chiamaka Nnadozie (FC Paris). Also, the CAF National Team of the Yea

  Transportation is very key to human existence. In the days of yore, aside from trekking, many people travel by riding on animals such as horses, donkeys, and camels. When technology came, vehicles, trains, canoes, boats, ships and airplanes gradually substituted animals in the transportation business.   It is debatable if people travel more for business or pleasure. Undoubtedly, the fastest means of transportation is through air. An airplane can make road travel of 12 hours in one hour. Hence, it is the most preferred means of travel by elites who value time and also want to travel safely. The history of aviation in Nigeria would be incomplete without the mention of Kano city, where the first aircraft landed on November 1, 1925. According to Wikipedia, Nigeria Airways was founded in 1958 after the dissolution of West African Airways Corporation. It held the name West African Airways Corporation Nigeria until 1971 when it was rebranded to the name it had until it ceased operations i