By Michael Chibuzo Nigeria’s First Lady, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu recently made some comments which triggered viral reactions by different sections of Nigeria’s vocal online court. The First Lady while speaking on the activities of her pet project, the Renewed Hope Initiative, said that the programme has been providing grants, rather than loans, to vulnerable Nigerians to help them start businesses and improve their livelihoods and that she has personally supported several causes with substantial donations in healthcare, education, agriculture, ICT training and social investment. She said, “we are trying to give hope, and to start Akara business doesn’t take a…
Author: Michael Chibuzo
By Michael Chibuzo Anambra State government led by Prof. Charles Soludo has commenced early works on the site of Anambra’s second international airport project located at Ndikelionwu in Orumba North local government area. This second airport is billed by the Soludo administration as the centrepiece of the aerotropolis that forms a critical component of his ambitious Mixed-Use Industrial City sitting on over 4000 hectares of land spanning Aguata, Orumba North and Orumba South local government areas. Make no mistake, the mixed-use industrial city concept is not a bad idea, unfortunately, the aerotropolis aspect of the project design is bad economics.…
By Michael Chibuzo In moments of national crisis, emotions understandably run high, as evident in the emotion-laden tirade by Erasmus Ikhide triggered by the condemnable xenophobic violence unfolding on the streets of South Africa. Nigerians are once again bearing the brunt of a raging anti-immigrant hysteria. Yet it is during such moments that public commentators must don the cap of logic and distinguish symbolism from statecraft and rage from reason. This is where Erasmus derailed. His misguided opinion piece attempts to portray President Bola Tinubu’s diplomatic trip to France, Kenya, and Rwanda as “joyriding” while accusing the Nigerian government of…
By Michael Chibuzo On 1st April, 2026, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that it will no longer recognise the factions of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by former Senate President, David Mark or Nafiu Bala Gombe, following its review of a court of appeal judgement in an appeal filed by the Mark-led ADC faction. This development triggered a flurry of reactions and debates across the political spectrum and predictably many of the commentaries sought to weave a narrative that the move by INEC was instigated by the ruling All Progressives Congress and President Bola Tinubu. In…
By Michael Chibuzo For almost seven decades, Nigeria’s electricity sector has moved in circles and in slow motions. Every administration in Nigeria including the military government has always promised to “finally solve” the power problem, yet the national grid continues to collapse under the weight of chronic underinvestment, socialist pricing, policy inconsistencies, vandalism, and most importantly, a funding model that simply cannot sustain itself. Despite expanding from a population of around 44 million in 1960 to over 220 million today, Nigeria’s national power grid has simply failed to keep up. Before I delve fully into our present electricity quagmire, let…
By Temitope Ajayi Nigeria returned to global significance with the just-concluded state visit to the United Kingdom by President Bola Tinubu. The President and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, played their roles well to critical acclaim. Both the President and the First Lady brought grace to the occasion with their poise, elegance, and comportment. Since the visit ended on Thursday, if the Nigerian brand stock had been traded on the London Stock Exchange, the share price would have risen astronomically, delivering unprecedented value to shareholders. The reception at Windsor by the British Royal Family, led by King Charles III and…
The former Governor of Kaduna State and prominent Chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on Friday publicly admitted to being privy to a successful hacking of the phone of President Bola Tinubu’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Mallam El-Rufai made this revelation during an interview on Arise Television where he spoke about his recent ordeal in the hands of the DSS and the ICPC. “I want to say very clearly that it wasn’t the EFCC. It’s the DSS. But the DSS were procured to abduct me by the ICPC that has never communicated with…
By Michael Chibuzo The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday announced February 20, 2027 as the date for the 2027 presidential election while the governorship election will, as usual, hold two weeks later on March 6, 2027. Interestingly, some Muslim voices including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ADC presidential hopeful, have called on INEC to shift the general election from these dates because the dates are going to clash with the month of Ramadan. To be honest, I initially thought these calls were jokes until it dawn on me that they were indeed serious calls for postponement of the…
By Podium Reporters Nigeria’s political space is currently awash with varying shades of outrage by some political players and stakeholders over section 60(3) of the Electoral Amendment bill 2025, initially passed by the Nigerian Senate on February 4th, 2026. The contentious debate centers on one phrase: “mandatory electronic transmission of results in real-time”. In the 2022 Electoral Act, the section that legislates on the transfer of polling unit results is Section 60(5) while in the 2025 Amendment Bill, the equivalent section is 60(3). For clarity, both versions are reproduced here side by side. In the 2022 Act, section 60(5) reads:…
By Michael Chibuzo As the countdown to the January, 2026 effective take off of two landmark Tax Reform laws gathers steam, wrong narratives and misconceptions about aspects of the new tax laws have also been on the increase. While some of the misconceptions are borne out of innocent ignorance, others are mostly from a place of political mischievousness. In this Explainer I will be addressing the misconceptions around the income tax provisions in the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025. Over the past couple of months, I have noticed the following misconceptions and wrong narratives around the issue of income tax,…