Category: Features/Analysis

By Abdullahi Adamu It is amazing how things are changing for good at the Federal Inland Revenue Service under the leadership of Muhammad Nami. Recall that soon after he assumed office, he did not mince words by declaring that he would return to the staff the Service functions hitherto given to Consultants. Six months down the line, it can be confidently reported that he has made good his promise, especially in the use of the  ICT staff for the deployment of technology infrastructure to drive TCC issuance to taxpayers. Tax…

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“BRF is a genius at breaking it down, laying it all out. When he goes on project tours, he stops to ask the artisans and food vendors on the site about how the project has touched or is touching their lives. And that’s what government communications should really be focusing on: telling and showing the actual impact / outcomes. Not just the contract sum (input) — which is what tends to make the headlines, the media love these numbers — but also the “stimulus” effect on ordinary people and communities…

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Something good is already happening. Something marvellous is in store, as Federal Government kick starts the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) National Gas Pipeline Project next Tuesday. It’s another humongous signature milestone by President Muhammadu Buhari, which will leave his footprints inexorably on the sands of time. Roads. Bridges. Rail. Airports. Social Investment. And many others. Buhari is doing great things, which will pedestal him in the pantheon of great Nigerian leaders. And now, he has struck again. He is kicking off the AKK pipeline project, which will carry gas between…

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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has a fixation with 60 years. At the height of its heady days in power, it challenged its Chi (personal god) to a wrestling contest, vowing that it would rule Nigeria for minimum of 60 years. We know how the story ended. The Chi gave the boastful party a thunderous pin-fall. So great was the fall that not all the king’s horses nor all the king’s men could put Humpty Dumpty together again. The Sugar Candy Mountain of 60 years ended in 16 years, with…

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Sometimes, when you think you have heard the worst about what is going on in Nigeria; that is just the beginning of contending with the unimaginable. One time, you hear the President’s wife telling the nation that she doesn’t know the whereabouts of her security aides, at another time; you read news report of shootings in the seat of power. As you are still wondering if this is some kind of plot in a blockbuster, almost immediately, a government aide confirms the shootings and at the same time describes the…

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Let’s begin with this story a retired Colonel of the Nigerian Army told me recently about the man Muhammadu Buhari, who was assuming duty as General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2 Mechanized Infantry Division, in January 1981. “I was a Captain then,” the retired Colonel said. “General Buhari had just been posted as our GOC. We had heard a lot about his sense of duty, timeliness, fairness, and discipline. We soon saw it on display in a way we never forgot.” It was an evening to host the new GOC to…

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Wednesday June 10, 2020, was ‘judgment day’ for Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. Incidentally, the day had broken with stories of denials of rift between him and his political mentor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former two-term Governor of Lagos State, and National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC had outlawed all party sub-groups in Lagos, where Aregbesola had his political foundations, and still maintains a stranglehold, despite having been a two-term Governor in Osun State. The buzz was that the Minister was possibly eyeing the Presidency…

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I don’t think anyone can doubt the commitment of Governor Nasir el’ Rufai to ending the practice of Almajiri system in Kaduna State.  Give it to him, his actions of late have shown that he is indeed tired of seeing child beggars on the streets of northern states. He didn’t mince his words either in a recent interview on Channels Television when he talked about leaving other northern governors behind should they decide to continue to treat the issue with levity. To him, that would be the governors’ business. But…

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