FG should tread carefully on subsidy policy
THE Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, recently reiterated the resolve of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to remove the prohibitive subsidy on petrol ahead of its departure on May 29. This aligns with repeated pledges by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to scrap it upon assuming office. […]
Stamp out cannabis abuse, trafficking
THE recent disclosure by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control that 10.6 million Nigerians have used cannabis in the past year is worrisome and deserves urgent attention. The lament by the Director-General of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye, that cannabis is often introduced to many people while in their teens underscores the scale […]
Resurgence of brutality by soldiers vexatious
NIGERIAN soldiers’ propensity for brutality and extrajudicial killings continue to embarrass the country and its military. In a fresh incident on Monday, a soldier at the Babana community in Borgu Local Government Area, Niger State, shot a nursing mother and her infant to death. Such avoidable waste of precious lives requires a critical re-engineering of […]
Lagos needs to do more on air pollution
IN its latest World Air Quality report, a Swiss air quality technology company, IQAir, estimates that the level of air pollution in Lagos State, the commercial nerve centre of the country, is seven to 10 times higher than the recommended World Health Organisation air quality guidelines. According to the report, cities such as Doha, Lyon, […]
Police, INEC must prosecute electoral offenders
THE high level of electoral offences witnessed in the 2023 elections reflects the failure of the Nigerian state and its institutions to ensure clean polling and to bring perpetrators and their sponsors to justice. As Nigerians, and domestic and international poll watchers take stock of theshambolic elections, the evidence of the lack of effective deterrence […]
Fulani herdsmen rampage must stop
THE spate of killings by Fulani herdsmen and militias has continued unabated. In a recent outrage, at least 50 persons were slaughtered during a four-day rampage in communities in the Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State. Another group attacked communities in Southern Kaduna State, killing 10 persons. The Federal Government’s ambivalent stance amid the […]
50 years on, like a meteor, PUNCH still shines
LIKE a meteor, Punch Nigeria Limited brightened Nigeria’s newspaper skyline exactly 50 years ago. Bold, breezy, and lively, the first edition of the Sunday PUNCH hit the newsstands across the country on March 18, 1973, and since then, PUNCH titles have remained iconic staples in the country’s history and mass media landscapes. The group intends […]
Banknotes: CBN’s directive too little, too late
SOME respite is finally in sight for Nigerians, who have in the past two months suffered greatly due to the acute scarcity of cash for basic transactions. In a belated announcement, the Central Bank of Nigeria stated that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes that it is replacing remained legal tender alongside the newly […]
Need to tackle unemployment headlong
REFLECTIONS by the organised private sector on the growing pains and shrinking of businesses accentuate the country’s dire unemployment crisis. The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association’s lament that many small businesses “have gone into extinction,” and reports of job losses by other OPS organs followed projections released earlier by the International Labour Organisation that Nigeria and […]
Reversing the travails of the naira
THE travails of Nigeria’s national currency continue to batter the economy and dismay domestic and international experts and development partners. A new report from the global consultancy, Andersen, raises fresh fears over the forlorn trajectory of the naira and draws attention to the urgency of a salvage mission. Sadly, the two drivers of fiscal and […]