Author: damazah@gmail.com

As Israeli bombs rained down on southern Lebanon in 2024, I found myself thinking about Rabih, a Lebanese man I had once met at his furniture store on Lagos Island. I wondered what had become of him and his family back in Beirut. By October, the escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah had displaced more than 1.2 million people, while Lebanon’s already tenuous infrastructure lay in ruins and its beleaguered economy was once again teetering on the precipice of collapse. My first impression of Rabih was that he was an exceptionally pleasant man, which, of course, is hardly unusual for…

Whether your passion is the battle of the bands or the Battle of Hastings, what are probably Britain’s hottest cultural tickets are about to go on sale – and to be in with a shout of going, there are insider tips that will get you a good spot in the queue.General admission tickets to the Glastonbury festival next June go on sale online at 9am on Sunday, while the next tranche of tickets to view the Bayeux tapestry at the British Museum will be released to members on Tuesday 6 October before a public on-sale on 21 October.If you are…

Anthony Kila, the pro-chancellor of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU), has long presented himself publicly as a professor and a “Jean Monnet Professor of Strategy and Development”, but PREMIUM TIMES has found that he was never awarded the academic rank. Mr Kila, appointed pro-chancellor of MCIU in August 2025, has a long list of academic profiles that present him as a well-educated and widely travelled jurist, professor, scholar, accomplished professional, author, and public commentator of repute. A pro-chancellor chairs the governing council of every Nigerian university. The governing council is in turn charged with the general control and supervision of…

In commemoration of Nigeria’s 66th independence anniversary, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has approved the pardon, release, and commutation of sentences of 13 inmates of the Nigerian Correctional Centres, Enugu State. This is in the exercise of his power of Prerogative of Mercy under Section 212 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and in consultation with the Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, Enugu State. According to a statement released by the Mbah’s media aide, Uche Anichukwu, on Independence Day, the Governor’s approval was conveyed to the Comptroller, Nigerian Correctional Service, Enugu State Command by the Attorney General and…

Tse Angaador is a farming community about 182 kilometres from Makurdi, the Benue State capital. With an estimated population of about 3,000 residents, the village is in the Gaambe Tiev district of the Logo Local Government Area. The road linking it to the outside world is a narrow red earth track that cuts through cassava and yam fields. In the early morning of 27 July 2024, the village’s men were concluding the Imôngu, an all-night Tiv traditional funeral rite. The ceremony was being held for Kumawuese Bam, a secondary schoolgirl who had died after an illness. The event was held…

Nigeria’s Free Zones are entering a critical phase as government moves to modernise the regulatory framework, protect existing investments and position the zones to attract new capital, expand exports, create jobs and support emerging industries, writes Dike Onwuamaeze Nigeria’s Free Zones have been an important part of the country’s investment and industrial landscape for more than three decades. They were established to attract investment, increase production and exports, create jobs, facilitate technology transfer and provide an operating environment capable of competing for increasingly mobile global capital. Those objectives remain unchanged, what has changed is the environment in which the Free Zones…

Boniface Okoro For decades, Abia State has been known largely for its commercial energy, entrepreneurial spirit and industrial activities. But beneath the bustle of Aba and the administrative calm of Umuahia lies a rich collection of historical and natural heritage sites. Now, the Abia State Government is seeking to turn that heritage into a major tourism attraction and a potential gateway to international recognition. The government has approved the elevation of three prominent historical sites — the National War Museum, Ojukwu Bunker and Government College, all in Umuahia — as state monuments, in a move aimed at preserving their historical…

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Normal sudoku rules apply, except the numbers in the cells contained within dotted lines add up to the figures in the corner. No number can be repeated within each shape formed by dotted lines.To see the completed puzzle, buy the next issue of the Guardian (for puzzles published Monday to Thursday). Solutions to Friday and Saturday puzzles are given in either Saturday’s or Monday’s edition.

RAMCO represents a fundamental shift in the country’s management of renewable energy investments, reckons BASHIR HASSAN IBRAHIM Nigeria has taken its most decisive step yet toward solving one of its most persistent development challenges: the chronic decay of publicly funded energy infrastructure. The launch of the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO) on 26th August 2026 in Abuja represents a fundamental shift in how the country manages its renewable energy investments, moving from a decades-old pattern of commissioning and abandoning projects to a model built on professional stewardship, lifecycle planning, and measurable performance. The initiative, driven by the Rural Electrification Agency…