Nigeria is estimated to have the highest number of out-of-school children globally, with over 10.5 million children, according to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Of this lot, Lagos State is said to share 33,000 of the number, as noted in a 2014 DFID report. The majority of the children live in rural areas and […]
Young Nigerian graduates from universities and polytechnics are often excited about the call to serve the nation. Every year, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) mobilises hundreds of thousands of both locally and foreign-trained graduates for the year-long compulsory national service that begins with a 21-day orientation exercise across the 36 states of the federation, […]
The voices they tried to silence The military personnel that stormed Anasa Beach in the course of our work had questioned whether there were any Bakassi returnees at the beach, insisting our real motives were hidden. They had essentially accused us of using claims of investigating the Bakassi resettlement issue as guise for a possibly sinister […]
Revisiting the long, complicated history and its many fallouts If anything, the episode of the reported killing Nigerian fishermen, the passions it inflamed, and the debate it provoked, accentuated a bitter history of lengthy territorial scramble between both countries, which though received legal resolution over a decade and a half ago, and subsequent political resolution, […]
Reawakening the ghosts of a bitter dispute In July, reports of the killing of ninety-seven Nigerian fishermen in the Bakassi Peninsula sent shockwaves across Nigeria and the international community, awaking fears that relations between both countries were set to degenerate, leading to a major international dispute. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Paul […]
Nailed with a stroke of pen June 14, 2017 would have passed for any other day. It was a Wednesday and the conference room was packed full. Seated were Professor Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), external examiners and other stakeholders who had met in Abuja to review the 2017 […]
The arrest of two Chinese nationals, Taolung Shen and Xu Jing Yau, in February 2017, for allegedly dealing in fake tyres, estimated at about N5.3 billon, dominated media space and put some businesses owned by foreigners on the spotlight. The case of Shen and Yau constitutes less than a percentage of unreported illegal activities foreign […]
Last year, October 9 to be precise, the Lagos State Government announced its intention to demolish ‘shanties’ along waterfronts across the state, giving the residents of such slums seven days to vacate the areas. That threat of forceful eviction by the government which, however, did not name specific communities or provide any statutory basis for […]
The people of Benue State seem to have had more than a fair share of tragedies emanating from attacks carried out by marauders suspected to be herdsmen. Hundreds have been killed, and whole communities sacked in attacks that smacks of a deliberate and planned motive to ensure that such areas are devoid of the humans […]
At a time he was unsure of what path to settle for in his life’s journey, the young and active Ziggy (not real name), eventually decided to join the Nigerian Army. It didn’t just happen; Ziggy, the Lagos boy, was in a commercial vehicle going to Ojota when a soldier, beautifully adorned in his camouflage-uniform […]
