DailyMonitorngr

By DAN Osa-Ogbegie, Esq. There is a kind of politician whose appetite for relevance becomes a national risk, whose personal drama threatens the delicate scaffolding of democracy. That politician, today, is Nyesom Wike, the self-styled strongman of Rivers politics and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who seems unable to distinguish between power and propriety. Recent events have peeled off the last pretence that Wike’s politics is about service or conviction. His public altercation with a senior military officer in Abuja over a piece of land, captured on video and circulated widely, was not only disgraceful, it revealed a deeper sickness: a man intoxicated by unrestrained authority. At a time when Nigeria is barely recovering from rumours of an attempted coup, and when every institution must act with restraint to preserve national stability, Wike’s arrogance in confronting a serving officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces was an act of gross irresponsibility. In a...

A BETRAYAL OF TRUST ? By Johnson Emmanuel It has become glaringly obvious that Honourable Salman’s representation of Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency is deeply skewed and selectively biased.While he claims to serve all, his actions paint a very different picture — one of neglect, favoritism, and political opportunism. Kabba, the headquarters and largest district in the constituency, has been treated with undeserved neglect and disrespect.During the recent Kabba Cultural Day, instead of engaging warmly with the people, bringing his colleagues, and demonstrating tangible support, Honourable Salman rushed in and left within two minutes without donating a kobo or fraternizing with the Kabba community. This is not just disappointing — it is a betrayal. Contrast that with the generosity of prominent personalities like Prince Olatunji, who donated 50 million Naira, and Karimi, who donated 20 million Naira and promised to add 30 million more before the end of the year. The sad...

By DAN Osa-Ogbegie, Esq. There is a kind of leadership that mistakes destruction for courage — that believes y the only way to prove strength is to undo what came before. That unfortunate spirit now seems to animate Edo State under Governor Monday Okpebholo. His open hostility towards projects linked to former Governor Godwin Obaseki has become a theatre of regression. Nothing illustrates this dangerous impulse more clearly than his attitude to the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) and the regrettable protest of 5th November, 2025 in Benin City, cheered on by a government that seems to prefer ignorance to illumination. The Museum of West African Art is not a partisan creation. It is a visionary, home-grown cultural and research institution conceived to re-anchor Nigeria at the centre of West Africa’s artistic and historical narrative. Its first building, The Institute, opens on 11th November, 2025 as part of a multi-phase campus combining galleries, conservation laboratori...

By DAN Osa-Ogbegie, Esq. There comes a time in a people’s history when farce begins to wear the robe of tragedy. That moment arrived in Edo State the day Jarret Tenebe and Governor Monday Okpebholo mounted a rented stage to announce, with the blithe confidence of jesters, that they would deliver 3.5 million votes to the President in 2027, in a state whose entire voters’ register barely scratches 2.7 million. What mathematics of deceit is this? What arithmetic of delusion makes men mistake noise for numbers? Edo watched in disbelief as the supposed custodians of the ruling party and the state transformed governance into a carnival of mediocrity — dancing around false statistics as though governance were a street fair and not a sacred trust. Instead of confronting the aching realities that define Edo today — joblessness, insecurity, urban decay, abandoned hospitals, and a civil service gasping for reform — Okpebholo has chosen to preside over rallies of distraction. While mar...