Member of the House of Representatives, James Abiodun Faleke, has called for a stronger political alliance among leaders in Kogi State, saying internal divisions and partisan interests must not be allowed to undermine the state’s development. Faleke, who represents Ikeja Federal Constituency of Lagos State, made the appeal when he received a delegation of stakeholders from the Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, led by Prince Yomi Kolawole, in Abuja on Friday. The meeting, which brought together political and community stakeholders from Kogi West, centred on the need for greater cooperation among leaders and more effective mobilisation of resources and opportunities for the…
Author: National Update
Former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently improve the remuneration and welfare of military personnel, warning that expanding the Nigerian Army without adequately motivating its personnel could undermine the effectiveness of the security architecture. Ndume, who represents Borno South in the National Assembly, made the call while commending Tinubu for approving the expansion of the Nigerian Army from eight to 12 divisions and the recruitment of 28,000 additional personnel. He said the government must complement the expansion with better pay, training, equipment and ammunition, stressing that the success of the initiative would depend not…
The Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has delivered a major setback to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its prolonged financial restrictions against businesswoman Aisha Achimugu, declaring the continued freezing of 124 bank accounts linked to her an abuse of court process and a subversion of the rule of law. In a unanimous judgment, a three-member panel of the appellate court discharged and vacated the ex parte order obtained by the EFCC more than 15 months earlier to freeze the accounts of Achimugu and several corporate entities associated with her. The court also overturned the…
By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a lucky man. He is a lucky husband and a lucky father. The President may not be forgotten in a hurry, long after he has served out his tenure as the leader of Nigeria, the largest Black so-called democracy in the world. I say so because of two major figures who have added glamour to the tenure of Mr President: his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a former senator, and his son, Mr Seyi Tinubu, an accomplished lawyer and entrepreneur. Both personalities have used their proximity to the highest political office in…
By Douglas Baye-Osagie dbayeosagie@yahoo.com It is sobering to see the Vice President of Nigeria lead a team of Governors to the Benin Republic to study the operations of a textile mill. Vice President Shettima flew into Cotonou, and pictures from his official verified Facebook page, _Kashim Shettima_, on 24th July 2026 carried a sentence: “drawing practical lessons from Benin’s approach to agricultural value chain.” The images tell a story we should not be telling in 2026. Not long ago, the story was reversed. People came to Nigeria. Buyers came. Investors came. Technicians came. They came to learn how we did…
By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko This is certainly the season of intense competition among politicians in Nigeria to show off their foreign-educated children in the mass media, for whatever reason. Perhaps they do this to let the rest of us—the wretched of the earth, in the words of Frantz Fanon, the French psychiatrist and political philosopher—know that they are building political empires and grooming successors who will take over from where they stopped destroying Nigeria. Some of these politicians were once governors who purportedly built state universities but would never send their own children to those institutions. This is indeed their…
Senator representing Kano South, Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, has criticised recent comments by United States Senator Ted Cruz on Nigeria’s security situation, warning that portraying the country’s challenges through a narrow religious lens risks deepening divisions and undermining efforts to restore peace. In a statement issued on Friday, Kawu said attempts to characterise Nigeria’s complex security crisis as a conflict targeted solely at one religious group misrepresent realities on the ground and could encourage policies that do not reflect the country’s security dynamics. He noted that the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump had previously removed Nigeria from the…
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rejected former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegation that he financed the failed 2002 impeachment plot against his administration, describing the claim as politically motivated, unfair and an attempt to shape public opinion ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Atiku’s response came a day after Obasanjo alleged in a letter to former Ogun State Governor Olusegun Osoba that the former Vice President gave then Speaker of the House of Representatives, the late Ghali Umar Na’Abba, ₦5 million to commence impeachment proceedings against him while they were both in office. Responding in a statement issued on Friday…
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar, orchestrated and financed the failed 2002 impeachment attempt against his administration, claiming the former Vice President was determined to succeed him “by hook or by crook.” Obasanjo made the allegation in a letter addressed to former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, while responding to remarks attributed to Osoba concerning his relationship with Yoruba political leaders. According to the former President, the impeachment campaign originated within the Presidency and was driven by Atiku, who he claimed had begun positioning himself for the presidency from the onset of their…
Douglas Baye-Osagie dbayeosagie@yahoo.com Athletics historians can’t wait for a better opportunity than now to believe Nigeria is on the verge of winning one of the most elusive gold medals in our sports history. Despite a rich avalanche of great sprinters, a men’s 100m gold medal at the Commonwealth Games has been embarrassingly evasive. For 96 years, the Commonwealth Games have rolled around like clockwork. The gun first cracked in Hamilton 1930, the steel city of Canada. Then it echoed in London 1934, and through the Commonwealth in cities like Sydney, Auckland, Cardiff, Kingston, Edinburgh, Kuala Lumpur, Manchester, Brisbane, Victoria, Delhi,…