President Goodluck Jonathan said that those indicted in the report of the House of Representatives Committee that investigated the implementation of the subsidy regime in Nigeria will be punished. He vowed that no one will be spared. The House, which called for the prosecution of former PPPRA boss, Ahmadu Ali, over his alleged role in […]
Latest News
Is Media Above the Law?
By MOHAMMED ISMAIL When the crime was perpetrated in the banking sub-sector, all hell was let loose; now that the crime is being perpetrated by the all powerful media there is a resoundingly deafening silence. Although, the banking industry has a potent reason to embrace casualization of staff in the wake of the global financial […]
I Will Contest 2015 Presidency – Atiku
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has expressed worry over what he called attempts from some quarters to create the impression that he is not eligible to vie for the presidency in 2015. Atiku said that those who claim to have the gift of foresight, especially what would happen in 2015, should stop playing Allah, because ”we […]
NNPC’s Can of Worms
How NNPC became Nigeria’s Palace of Corruption House subsidy panel indicts NNPC management, board, seeks refund of missing N1 trillion Committee recommends complete overhaul of NNPC Waste Disposal Firm Got N1.9b Fuel Subsidy Payment By OHIA ISRAEL In January this year, Nigerians from all walks of life, came out to protest the removal of fuel […]
Danjuma’s Oil Wells And The Murmurings Of Nigerians
Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma is not a person the Biafran people will forget in a hurry. He supervised the brutal killing of General Aguiyi Ironsi, the first military head of state of Nigeria. He was among the troops that invaded the Biafra territory during the civil war and was fabled to be heartless in the discharge […]
Beggars Life In The Society (Almajiranci)
By HASSANA ZUBAIRU DAGONA Begging (Almajiranci) starts when ones parents took him to another place be it a hamlet, village, town or to a city in some cases for the purpose of acquiring Islamic knowledge. The life of such individuals in the society is painful especially when it comes to the issue of food and […]
Celebrating Corruption
That it takes a London court to jail James Ibori, former Delta State governor, whose case was bungled in his own country, puts the all-pervasivesness of corruption in Nigeria in bold relief Southwark Crown Court Asaba, the Delta State capital, has lately become the choice location for movie producers and artistes. But most of the […]
PDP, Democracy and Posterity
Recently, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party in Nigeria, held its national convention for the purpose of electing national officers of the party. Before the convention, there were heated campaigns in some zones of the country for the political offices allotted to their zones. The case of the North East geo-political zone which […]
Exclusive: Babies for Sale!
Despite steps taken by several agencies and the federal government to stamp out child and human trafficking in the country, the illicit trade is still thriving and booming, reports Ohia Israel Babies are supposed to be gifts from God and no doubt a precious one for that matter. However, these rare and precious gifts from […]
Boko Haram Kills Spokesman Abu Qaqa II
Sambo: Attacks Not Religious By IKE ABONYI and TOKUNBO ADEDOJA The division in the dreaded Islamist sect Boko Haram deepened at the weekend with the murder of Abu Qaqa II, the spokesman of the militant group suspected to have taken over from Abu Qaqa I who was captured last January and has been in the […]
Jonathan Did Not Promise Northern Leaders He Will Not Contest – Sen. Kanti Bello
Senator Mahmud Kanti Bello represented Katsina North from 2003 to 2011. He lost his bid to return to the parliament in the April 2011 elections. In this interview, he speaks on why President Jonathan might contest the 2015 election. He also touches on the need for a tougher president of northern extraction to bring the […]
Prospects And Challenges of INEC For Credible Elections In Future
By AHMED ABUBAKAR As the 2011 general elections has past and INEC is assiduously working towards conducting credible and acceptable elections in 2015, it may be said that it has at the moment impressively put in place some necessary machineries for a successful election. But in spite of all the efforts of the Independent National […]
The Politics and Praxis of the Development agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN)
By IBIYINKA O.SOLARIN The DAWN document, a well-thought out, and meticulously prepared socio-economic framework for bold economic integration/transformation of western Nigeria was finally unveiled to the Nigerian public on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Those who prepared this document, and the organizers of its public unveiling are students of history. The personage and history of Obafemi […]
On the Approval of 13% Revenue Derivation from Solid Minerals to Northern States
By Dr. EMMANUEL OJAMERUAYE According to the report, “the Federal Government may have opted to appease some northern states … government was worried about rising insecurity in the northern part of the country with vociferous leaders of the north blaming the situation on poverty and inequality arising from alleged lopsided revenue allocation against them…It was […]
Nigerian Government claims “Living Standard” is improving despite Cronic Poverty
By SANI TUKUR Since increasing petrol price from N65 to N97 in January, prices of goods and services have soared by as much as 50 per cent or more, leaving Nigerians to pay more while their earnings remained largely the same. Four months into the new price regime, analysts have said the country’s poverty level […]
The North that Southerners don’t know
By MARK AMAZA THE general belief held by most southerners about the North is that the region is not just mainly Muslim, but wholly Muslim. Whenever I meet someone from the South and introduce myself, I am correctly placed as a Christian. But once I am asked my state and I say Borno State, the […]
The Battle for the Soul of 2015
By HANNATU MUSAWA One thousand and ninety days to go, the battle for the soul of 2015 has already begun! As we eat up the days in our march towards D-Day, I cannot say enough, within the limited space that I have to write this piece, about the total lack of seriousness of the opposition […]
Sheikh Ja’afar: His Immortal legacy
By MOHAMMAD QADDAM SIDQ ISA Last week Friday 13th April, 2012 is exactly five years since the brutal assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam. I was thousands of kilometres away on that fateful day when I got some repeated missed calls on my cell phone, which evoked suspicion in me that something was probably […]
Nigeria And Tribalism
By ABBA A. MOHAMMAD Nigeria, officially the Federal republic of Nigeria, is a constitutional Federal Republic comprising 36 states and its federal capital territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east and Niger Republic in the North. […]
Why Aviation Industry nose-dived Corrupt Ministers to blame
By OHIA ISREAL The Aviation industry in Nigeria, today have witnessed a lot of scandals and fraud which has placed it under this shape of comatose. A lot that has happened in the industry has accounted for the of lack of growth in the sector. The sector has become substandard. Though the current administration of […]
Security: ‘The Way Forward’ – Hon. Umar Bature
In this exclusive interview with Desert Herald, Hon. Umar Bature, Chairman House Committee on the Interior, bares his mind on the duplication of duties in the nation’s civil service and other burning issues affecting the Interior Ministry. Excerpts: As the Chairman House Committee on Interior, what have been your challenges so far? Since I started […]
Jokolo’s Short Memory
By ADAMU BALARABE SOBA Obsession with cheap publicity appears to be second nature to the deposed Emir of Gwandu, retired Major Mustapha Haruna Jokolo. He wants to be a headline grabber at the slightest opportunity. One does not, however, have any trouble with a man’s addiction to publicity, provided his views are moderated by discretion, […]
Haiti, 1987-1988
After the Duvalier dictatorship came to an end in 986, the country prepared for its first free elections the following year. However, Haiti’s main trade union leader declared that Washington was working to undermine the left. US aid organizations, he said, were encouraging people in the countryside to identify and reject the entire left as […]
Desert Herald 
April 17, 2012 | Comments Off on The Forbidden City…(1)
The Forbidden City…(1)
By OLUSEGUN ADENIYI Hardly had I introduced myself when the man seated by my side, a Lebanese, remarked: “It’s like Christians and Muslims are still killing one another in your country…” I could not contain myself as I reacted sharply, “from where did you get that?” He said he had just finished watching on CNN […]