Punch Editorial Board UNLIKE the ongoing effusion of national pride in China (today) and Botswana (yesterday) that are also marking their national days, gloom, anxiety and seething discontent are pervasive among Nigerians at home and abroad on the country’s 59th anniversary. The reasons are not far-fetched: In June 2018, Nigeria grabbed the title of host […]

Punch Editorial Board ON the pretext of tracking insurgents fleeing the military assault in the North-East and to check the dispersal of bandits, kidnappers and ethnic militia, the Nigerian Army says it is launching a nationwide operation that could effectively intrude on the right of Nigerians to free movement. According to the military authorities, the […]

MESMERISED by the allure of grandeur abroad, in contrast to the misery at home, vulnerable Nigerian minors are leaving the country in droves. Nigeria’s Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Ramatu Ahmed, underlined the scourge afresh when she revealed that many teenagers were being deceived into taking the hazardous journey by the false narrative of greener pastures […]

WITH a motley assortment of terrorist groups rapidly mushrooming across the entire landscape of West Africa, leaders of the sub-region seem to have however agreed on the wisdom of forging a united front to effectively combat the frightening crisis of insecurity in their domains. This new thinking follows a meeting held recently in Ouagadougou, Burkina […]

Punch Editorial Board New on the job as Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite should avoid the slippery, doomed choices of the past on the Ajaokuta Steel Company. His remarks while receiving the Russian ambassador to Nigeria that the government was still bent on running the comatose steel complex and seeking “collaboration” were […]

Punch Editorial Board In what promises to be a major collaborative effort by Ogun and Lagos states, Governor Dapo Abiodun disclosed recently that plans had reached advanced stages to take over the reconstruction of some poorly-maintained federal roads in the two states and impose tolls thereafter, adopting the Public Private Partnership model. The concerned roads, […]

Punch Editorial Board EIGHT years after promulgating a law on the mandatory biometric registration of SIM cards, Nigeria is still struggling to implement it. As of August, millions of subscribers had not properly registered with the telecommunication companies, said the new Minister of Communications, Isah Ibrahim. This is a gross violation of the extant rule […]

Punch Editorial Board FROM sluggish growth, falling reserves and mounting debts to unmet revenue targets, capital flight and a jobless army of youths, the economy continues to confound President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. News of a deceleration in Gross Domestic Product growth in the second quarter of 2019 followed on that of a dip to a […]

Punch Editorial Board Governance is fast deteriorating in the country. Of note is that more than three months after Inauguration Day on May 29, several state governors have not constituted their cabinets. They create the impression that governance is a one-man show that can be trifled with. It is not so. Effective governance is a […]

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s naming of an Economic Advisory Council on Monday instantly ignited hope that the administration’s dreary management template is set for a positive jolt. Already, the organised private sector, global agencies and perceptive Nigerians have voiced cautious optimism at the composition of the all-expert eight-member EAC and simultaneous disbandment of the Economic Management […]

Punch Editorial Board Increasingly, criminal gangs – euphemistically referred to as cultists in local parlance – are painting our communities with the blood of innocent people. Apart from Abia, these gangs have seized the soul of cities in Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Oyo and Kwara states. To the chagrin of the majority, fresh rumpus […]

Punch Editorial Board In a country blighted by heightened insecurity, where people routinely die in their scores, even when there is no concrete reason for them to die, it was quite convenient to gloss over the recent death of a protester, fatally shot by Nigerian police officers. It is a bitter irony that while his […]

Punch Editorial Board ARMED with a twin-argument on the need to raise revenue and match the continental standards, the Federal Government is about to implement a hike in value-added tax rate from five per cent to between 7.2 and 7.5 per cent. First, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said the […]