The year 2022 was one full of intrigues in Nigeria and globally. Nigerians had their attention shifting from one issue to another at near-break-neck speed during the year.
Politics took a huge chunk of the attention. Momentum for the country’s next election began building up. The rising cost of living diverted people – who before now showed little interest – to economics, both macro and micro. The Russia-Ukraine war took everyone like a storm. Its impact still has a firm grip on many things. Yet amidst all these, our readers continued to draw inspiration from the stories of others who are weathering the storm like champions.
Here are 20 of the stories you kept coming back to read on our website:
For The Record: Charles Soludo’s inaugural address as Anambra state governor
Umunne m Ndi Anambra,
I applied for this job; my party, (the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA) shortlisted me, and you—umunne m Ndi Anambra— interviewed and employed me as your chief servant, with Dr. Onyekachukwu Gilbert Ibezim as my deputy. God ordained this moment and we are grateful to Him and to you all for the privilege to serve you.
Dr. Ibezim and I will work hard every day to make you proud. I ask millions of Ndi Anambra all over the world who have prayed for today to simply say a one minute prayer to commit this journey and Anambra State unto the hands of the Almighty God. Anambra will win.
2023 presidency: The shameful behaviours of Jonathan, Emefiele
Well, here’s the award for the ‘Most Disgraceful Political Behaviour’ ahead of 2023. And the joint winners are: Goodluck Jonathan, former president of Nigeria, and Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Together, they are inducted into the political ‘Hall of Shame’ for putting their political ambitions above common decency and political decorum and insulting the intelligence of Nigerians.
In any civilised democracy, where the norms of political integrity and public ethics prevail, Jonathan and Emefiele would attract intense and sustained media criticism and public opprobrium. Consider how the British media and public unrelentingly hold their politicians and public figures to account even for minor indiscretions.
Read the rest here:
Kaduna train attack eyewitness account: How mobile technology saved lives
One survivor of the terror attack Monday on a Kaduna bound Abuja train, Anas Iro Danmusa, has recounted how his phone call and use of social media from inside the attacked train saved the lives of hundreds of passengers.
He also narrated other unpleasant experiences he and other passengers encountered while inside the train including the presence of two suspected terrorists holding guns and walkie talkies.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/news/article/kaduna-train-attack-eyewitness-account-how-mobile-technology-saved-lives/
Road to 2023: Profiles of the Presidential aspirants
With the signing of the new Electoral Act 2022 by President Muhammadu Buhari last week Friday, the coast is clear now for political activities to gather more momentum.
The 2023 election is very important to Nigeria in more ways than one. It is going to be a fresh start after a two-term of eight years by Buhari.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/politics/article/road-to-2023-profiles-of-the-presidential-aspirants/
Celebrating 50 Inspiring Nigerian Women
Olaitan Martins was appointed Group Executive, Transaction Banking on 21 October 2021. Until this appointment, she served as the Group Head, Transaction Banking and prior to that, Group Head, Manufacturing Sector, Corporate Banking Group. She has over 20 years’ work experience in various financial institutions including Investment Banking & Trust Limited, Intercontinental Bank Limited, IBTC Asset Management Limited and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, where she held various leadership positions.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/women-in-business/article/celebrating-50-inspiring-nigerian-women/
Emefiele presidency saga: The only man who can fix Nigeria is my dad
What do you do when something is so fundamentally, hopelessly broken that there is literally no hope?
Sometime in the late 1990s, my little sister had a toy helicopter. I had a largely toy-free childhood because I was more of a book kid personally. My spectacularly pushy parents helped feed my obsession with knowing everything, buying me an assortment of encyclopedia, maps, books and magazines where boys my age had toy trucks and Power Rangers figures. I never knew I could get into toys until I laid my eyes on my sister’s toy chopper.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/columnist/article/emefiele-presidency-saga-the-only-man-who-can-fix-nigeria-is-my-dad/
The conversation we don’t want to have about Biafra (2)
Why is our awkward silence on the subject of Biafra extremely problematic? There are several reasons, but to begin with, I think it feeds into our lack of historicity, which manifests itself in our national decision making.
If it was general knowledge for example, that a certain Muhammadu Buhari was involved in the so-called counter coup of 1966 – essentially a horrendous massacre of Igbo army officers that directly led to the general pogroms that started the war – even the best efforts of marketing communications agencies in Lagos back in 2015 might not have sufficed to convince Nigerian voters that he was a suitable presidential candidate for the 21st Century.
Long after Chukwuka and Odinanka have fled or died, the sense of total impunity and the feeling of power associated with unpunished violence remain firmly rooted in those places…
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/columnist/article/the-conversation-we-dont-want-to-have-about-biafra-2/
2023: Issues that could make or mar Osinbajo’s presidential ambition
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday morning declared his intention to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Osinbajo’s formal declaration followed months of speculations and even denials. He made his ambition known after a meeting with APC Governors during Iftar (breaking of Ramadan fast) in State House.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/politics/article/2023-issues-that-could-make-or-mar-osinbajos-presidential-ambition/
Here are five alternatives to virtual dollar cards
Over time many individuals, businesses, and organisations have relied on Barter by Flutterwave for their virtual dollar card services in Nigeria, with shut down of the virtual card they have are left with no choice but to seek for alternatives.
Several Nigerian users who depend on these platforms to pay for services on global sites like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook, are facing a challenging time, especially with the $20 daily limit on international transactions by Nigerian banks.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/technology/article/here-are-five-alternatives-to-virtual-dollar-cards/
Seek ye first the economic kingdom – Then the politics shall follow
Being Muslims, they decided to bury him at sunrise, and they got back to the house before 8AM. I had a day off at work, so I decided to visit them around 9AM to offer my condolences. Amidst the grimness, I was hoping to offer a few words of encouragement to Korede’s dad in private but I did not see him there. I asked where he was and I struggled to stifle the gasp when they told me.
He had gone to work.
It’s the economics, stupid
Read the rest here:
Why Russia-Ukraine crisis will not lead to World War 3
During the early hours of Thursday, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, announced on television that he had decided “to carry out a special military operation” in Ukraine. Shortly afterwards, explosions were reported across the country but this is unlikely to devolve into World War lll as some have feared.
An analysis of the previous World Wars indicates that some of the precipitators of a global conflict are missing in this instance, even if the mad impulses that drove the world into a global warfare are still animating the hearts of men decades later.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/big-read/article/why-russia-ukraine-crisis-will-not-lead-to-world-war-3/
Buhari’s Channels TV interview
In an exclusive interview with Channels TV, President Muhammadu Buhari spoke on the rising insecurity, unemployment and the upcoming 2023 elections. Below are excerpts:
In your New Year speech, you told Nigerians that consistent insecurity in certain parts of the country may have threatened to unravel the incremental gains achieved; did you envisage the enormity of the task when you promised to tackle insecurity as the president and commander in chief of our country?
I think you can recall when I was campaigning in 2015 that there were three fundamental issues…
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/news/article/buharis-channels-television-interview/
ASUU, others, turn down FG plea to re-open schools
The Federal government tripartite plus parley with the striking university based unions last night ended without any concrete agreement for the workers to go back to work.
The unions had rejected government plea to suspend the strike while efforts are made to address the contentious issues..
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/news/article/asuu-others-turn-down-fg-plea-to-re-open-schools/
APC primary: Tinubu’s victory, an utter humiliation for Buhari, Adamu
Let’s face it, Professor Osinbajo’s abysmal performance, with just 235 votes out of 2,340, was a repudiation of the Buhari government’s so-called achievements by the APC’s rank and file
Bola Tinubu’s landslide victory in last week’s presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is an unmitigated humiliation for President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu. Forget their now embarrassing volte-faces, it’s an open secret that Tinubu was not their choice as the party’s standard bearer in next year’s election. Yet, he outmanoeuvred them and clinched the party’s ticket!
Read the rest here:
Obi/Atiku/Tinubu 2023: Overall best in politics
A few weeks ago, I had a long telephone conversation with Professor Pat Utomi concerning the 2023 presidential election. Prof, as I call him, wanted to intimate me as to some of his ideas for sparking a youth-led electoral tsunami that would change the political status quo. APC, PDP – he was not interested. “Two fingers on the same hand,” he said dismissively.
I was theoretically on-board, but also sceptical about the idea of pushing forward on one of the so-called “3rd Force” political platforms. I was the one after all, who wrote in this very column a few months back, that I considered 3rd Force platforms and unknown candidates to be at best, political spoilers and otherwise utterly delusional people. That column, incidentally, was inspired by an offer I received to work as a communications director on a campaign for an obscure APC candidate who apparently heard from God in a dream that they would be president in 2023. They never made it to the primaries.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/columnist/article/obi-atiku-tinubu-2023-overall-best-in-politics/
2023: Why I will not support Tinubu for presidency – Adebanjo
Ayo Adebanjo is the leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. In this interview with selected journalists, he spoke on the state of the nation, Bola Tinubu’s Presidential ambition, review of the 1999 Constitution, among other issues. INIOBONG IWOK brings Excerpts:
Would Yoruba leaders meet and appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari for the release of Sunday Igboho?
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/interview/article/2023-why-i-will-not-support-tinubu-for-presidency-adebanjo/
“E Gbe Kini Yii Wa!”: Government Of The Few, For The Corrupt and By The Entitled
At some point on Tuesday night, I felt as if I was the only Nigerian in the world not watching the APC presidential primary election.
Stubbornly I ignored its YouTube livestreams and I kept my eyes on the TV where I was romping through an unbeaten promotion season with Reading FC on eFootball 2022.
Journalistic interest in APC’s “internal democracy” be damned – Ovie Ejaria was on a hat trick against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final!
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/politics/article/e-gbe-kini-yii-wa-government-of-the-few-for-the-corrupt-and-by-the-entitled/
How harsh visa requirements spur fraud in Nigeria
Getting Schengen, United Kingdom, United States, and certain other countries’ visas can be a nightmare. A retired Nigerian diplomat tells BusinessDay that, “while a Japanese businessman or citizen who has business or travel to do in the US or in EU countries would simply buy a ticket and fly to these countries, his Nigerian counterpart, on the other hand, faces humiliating and oppressive barriers in accessing a visa.”
A Nigerian would typically have to produce such array of daunting documents, including a letter of employment, current bank statement of the last six months, leave permission from an employer, income tax return form or certificate of income tax deducted at the source of salary, copy of company registration, company bank statement of the latest six months, as well as proof of accommodation, introduction letter, invitation letter from the host, host’s work details, host’s bank statements, and utility bills.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/business-economy/article/how-harsh-visa-requirements-spur-fraud-in-nigeria/
Debt Atiku, Tinubu, must pay Nigerians
If we consider President Muhammadu Buhari Nigeria’s hurricane in the past seven years, not counting other years of his recurring presence, we may forget two eminent Nigerians whose distinct engagements have ranged from distractions to near disasters.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu are not statesmen in any meaningful sense of the word. Their crowds appropriate words to associate values with their politics. The values still remain indiscernible, lost in the grand ambitions of the duo to be President or…
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/politics/article/debt-atiku-tinubu-must-pay-nigerians/
Why Peter Obi dumped PDP, set to join Labour Party
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and one of the presidential aspirants on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), resigned from the party Tuesday, citing “recent developments within our party that make it practically impossible to continue participating and making such constructive contributions.”
BusinessDay gathered that he is joining the Labour Party (LP) to pursue his aspiration.
Read the rest here:
https://businessday.ng/politics/article/why-peter-obi-dumped-pdp-set-to-join-labour-party/
Are there stories you found particularly appealing that are not on this list? Let’s have your best picks in the comments section.
