By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. It is more than evident that Gov. Mohammed Umar Bago has turned Niger state into one huge construction site, repairing, upgrading and building on practically every bad road you can think of in Niger state. Gov. Bago is not only delivering on state roads, he is intervening on 18 […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. ‘Taxing the poor’, I wrote when the cybersecurity levy in the amended Cybercrimes Act back in May of 2024 caused a lot of public query. Erroneously or not, 0.5% was peddled as the cybersecurity levy for each or a range of transactions. Nigerians were up in arms against it […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. Nigeria imports about 6 million tonnes of wheat every year which runs into billions of dollars. It is no wonder that the Agric and Food Security Ministry is making concerted efforts towards reducing this bill, and gradually eliminating the huge forex flight that goes to the importation of a […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. Governance as it were usually adopts a blanket approach to finding solutions to different challenges in the society. This has robbed it of its effectiveness. It becomes lopsided whereby some communities get what they truly want, and some end up with excesses of what they do not need. Each […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. One would have thought that the whole idea of the dangote refinery was to achieve energy security for Nigeria. Years of importation of petroleum products was sabotaging the nation’s growth in so many ways. Forex flight is of course number one, followed by a corruption laden subsidy regime that […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’. Meaning every sad or unpleasant situation has a positive side to it. ‘Every disappointment is a blessing’ too they say, albeit, it depends on whether one is able to recognise the bright side of it, and make gains from the said disappointment. The […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. If only technological advancements could afford us the luxury of an easy pass to the solution of the power problem plaguing the north, then the heat from the current quantum of rage in arewa could hypothetically be converted to generate enough electricity to power the region! But the rage […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. Nigeria’s sports industry is going through the most dynamic change it has had in the last 40 years, with the return of the National Sports Commission, doing away with the bureaucracy and attendant bottlenecks that the sports ministry has brought to bear on its management. Mr. President’s recent re-structuring […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. I was puzzled by the Guardian Newspapers’ big story of Friday, 25th October, 2024; colourfully accompanied by a front page cartoon of a military tanker surrounded by civilians, egging on the soldier manning the vehicle, painting a picture of a civilian population supposedly asking for a military takeover. Normally […]
By Tahir Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. A journalist, Adeola Fayehun, had the opportunity of interviewing Prof. Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Health Minister at a foreign event recently. It wasn’t a scheduled interview and it was one of those run-into type of avenues where you have the chance of getting real, offhand answers to vital questions which […]