Author: Obayomi Abiola Benjamin

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Minster of Finance, has advised Nigerians to focus less on oil revenue and more on tax compliance, non-oil revenue and budget transparency to help develop the economy of the country. The minister gave the advice on Friday during a Finance Ministers’ meeting convened by the G24 Group at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring meetings in Washington DC. She discussed strategies to drive non-oil revenue growth and achieve inclusive growth in Nigeria. “Revenue mobilisation is critical to the success of Nigeria’s economic reform agenda. “We have an unacceptably low level of non-oil revenue and much of that is…

The N15 billion seized  by EFCC operatives in Lagos last week  was part of the  monies channelled by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan through the  National Intelligence Agency (NIA) for his party’s 2015 campaigns, a retired employee of the agency  told the Daily Trust yesterday. Ibrahim Ibrahim, who retired from the NIA 2006 as deputy director, said though Jonathan approved the monies to be distributed to PDP chieftains, the embattled Director-General of the agency, Ayo Oke did not do so for unknown reason. “A lot of things have happened; a lot of public officers have actually drifted away from the disciplined course…

For a government that thrives in propaganda, it is just as well that the operatives of the Muhammadu Buhari administration did not understand the significance of what happened on Tuesday at the Abuja International Airport. If they did, they would have moved beyond just regaling us with their cemetery tales. Ordinarily, the rehabilitation of an airport runway should be no big deal. However, given the circumstances surrounding this particular project, the Buhari administration has not only recorded a major landmark, it has also shown that if our public officials apply themselves, we can easily overcome most of our challenges as…

(For Omoyele Sowore, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Bayo Omisore, Moses Ochonu, Dapo Rotifa, Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo, Yommi Oni, Yomi Okusanya Scott, Jesse Bay, Peter Oshun, Obinna Aligwekwe, Olutoyin Adeyinka Eweje,Ayo Turton, Inibehe Effiong, Gimba Kakanda, Abdul Mahmud, and so many valiant warriors in your shoes within and without Fatherland.) I was fourteen years-old and in Form Four when I first encountered the Greek philosopher, Plato. No, I did not encounter him in the classrooms of Titcombe College, Egbe. I encountered him through Baba Adesanmi’s disciplinary regime: a hybrid of Roman Catholic, African-traditional, and Spartan colonial disciplinary methods. Depending on the gravity of your offence, if he spared the rod in favour of a long-winding sermon…

Chief Joseph Oke, immediate past Chairman, Leventis Group, on Tuesday said that Nigeria was overdue for restructuring. Oke spoke during the annual Discovery Lecture series at the Lagos State University (LASU) titled“Can Nigeria survive another century as a corporate entity?’’ He said that the union could continue for the next one thousand years, but the actions or inactions of the government, as well as restructuring, have roles to play in determining this. According to him, necessary steps must be taken to prevent it from going the other way. Oke said that the present arrangement is lopsided with too much power given…

I have just returned from Abuja travelling through the Kaduna airport. As we disembarked from the aircraft and moved towards the arrival section, I could hear an announcement being made. The diction of the announcer was clear. She didn’t sound like those On-Air-Personalities (OAP, they are called) who speak as if they have hot water on their tongues. Airport continuity announcers in Nigeria tend to imitate these OAPs. This has been for me a great source of irritation. The last time I travelled from Lagos to Abuja, for example, I missed my flight because I just could not figure out…

Nigeria’s minister of defense has once again warned that it may take years to find all the Chibok girls kidnapped by the dreaded militant group Boko Haram. Speaking to VOA’s Hausa service, General Mansur Dan Ali said the military is searching Boko Haram’s hideouts in the Sambisa Forest, a vast area covering parts of three states in northeastern Nigeria. He noted that it took a long time for the United States to find 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. “It took the U.S. up to seven, eight, up to 10 years before they could get to bin Laden,” he said. “We…

Full text  of the speech by Kano Emir, Muhammadu Sanusi II at the first annual lecture on Chibok Girls, He used the occasion to raise gender issues  and also drew attention to the grinding poverty in Northern Nigeria. It is a great honor for me to have been invited to speak on this landmark occasion of the third year of the atrocious and barbaric attacks in Chibok that led to the capture of hundreds of young girls from the school. In three years Nigerians have been horrified by this act and the consequent crimes of forced marriages, forced labour and…

“I love my country I know go lie Na inside am I go live and die I know my country I no go lie Na im and me go yap till I die…” Fellow Nigerians, let me borrow that incredible song I believe was composed by Tunji Oyelana and produced in the Shehu Shagari era, around 1981. The National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was comfortably in charge and the ruling party had gone on spending spree. The situation got so bad, or so we thought, and Wole Soyinka and his irrepressible “conspirators” regaled us with satires. Stage plays were still…

The year-on-year inflation rate fell for the second time in 16 months, but food prices stay on the high side, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed. Year-on-year headline inflation dropped to 17.26 percent in March 2017 from 17.78 percent in February 2017 but month-on-month rose by 1.72 percent from 1.49 percent in the previous month. In March 2017, year-on-year food inflation came in at 18.44 percent from 18.53 percent in February 2017. On a monthly basis, food prices rose by 2.21 percent from 1.99 percent driven by hike in the prices of bread, cereals, eggs, milk, meat, yam,…