@atiku A seat was reportedly secured for Bola near United States President Donald Trump at the world’s most important annual diplomatic gathering. Yet, for the third consecutive year, Tinubu refused to occupy it. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded a full explanation from President Tinubu over his repeated absence from the United Nations General Assembly, asking whether the President’s documented history with United States law-enforcement agencies has become a burden on Nigeria’s foreign relations. In a statement issued on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu stayed away from the 79th UNGA session in 2024, the 80th in 2025 and now the 81st in 2026, repeatedly sending Vice President Kashim Shettima to stand in for him. He said three consecutive absences could no longer be dismissed as coincidence or routine delegation but constituted a pattern of presidential evasion requiring an honest explanation....

The Presidency has now confirmed that Vice President Kashim Shettima will represent Nigeria at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. Meanwhile, President Tinubu is in Paris wining and dining with Macron. That makes it three consecutive UNGA sessions — 2024, 2025 and now 2026 — at which President Bola Tinubu will not personally lead Nigeria's delegation. Tinubu has attended UNGA only once since becoming President on 29 May 2023: the 78th Session in September 2023. Indeed, it is a constitutional responsibility for him to represent Nigeria at the UNGA. But why is the President of Africa's most populous country repeatedly absent from one of the world's most important annual gatherings of heads of state and government? What is he running away from? And the questions become more compelling because Nigerians had earlier been told that President Tinubu was expected to attend this year's UNGA and address the General Assembly on 23 September. It...

Ni ba malamin fikihu ko malam na ilimin addinin Musulunci ba ne, amma ni malamin tarihin duniya ne. Saboda haka, ba zan yi magana da cikakken ilimin addini kan matsayin addinin Musulunci game da jagorancin mata ba - wannan sai a bar wa malamai! Amma a matsayina na Musulmi, na san kadan daga abin da Musulunci ya ce game da mace da mulki a kan al’umma. Banda abin da *Al-Qur’ani Mai Girma* da *Hadisan Annabi (SAW)* suka fada, akwai kuma abubuwan da suka faru a tarihin Musulunci da suka kara fayyace matsayin Musulunci kan jagorancin mata. Saboda haka, a matsayin mai binciken tarihi - musamman tarihin Musulunci - zan yi bayani bisa abin da tarihi ya nuna game da wannan batu. 1. Ba da shawara da wakilanci daban, jagoranci kuma daban. A tarihin Musulunci, mace tana iya bada shawara ko wakilanci, amma ba ta da ikon jagoranci. Abin da *Qur’ani* da *Hadisi* suka bayyana a kai, kamar yadda na ce a baya, na bar wa malamai su yi bayani. Amma ga abin da tarihi ya nuna - ga wasu ‘yan misa...

Dear Lagos State Government, please locate, arrest and lock up the shops of every single persons that protested against Chinese businesses in Lagos. Let them feel what it takes to buy a Toyota headlamp for N235k from a Nigerian shop, only to discover after making payment that similar product, same company and same quality were sold by the Chinese at just N89k in that same Lagos.  Ordinary phone charger is been sold for N5k to N10k whereasit is sold for just N1k to N1,500k at the Chinese warehouses and retail outlets in Lagos.  They claim it is because of shipping 🚢 costs that made prices higher by them. Are the Chinese trekking all the way from China with their products on their heads to Nigeria? If the locals, make our lives and living extremely difficult because of greed and selfishness, making selling prices skyrocketed creating higer inflation; and the Chinese foreigners are making it better by selling at reasonable prices forcing inflation rate down, then why won't Nig...

There was a time when one military officer governed a territory so large that, decades later, it would become parts of six different Nigerian states. His name was Musa Usman. Born in Enugu in 1940, Musa Usman rose through the Nigerian military at an extraordinary speed and, at just 27 years old, became the military governor of the newly created North-Eastern State in May 1967. He remained in office until July 1975. But who was this young officer? And why should Nigerians today remember him? FROM A MILITARY FAMILY Musa Usman's story was connected to the history of both the military and Nigeria's complex ethnic heritage. His father, Usman Kakagida, was a Kanuri man of Chadian ancestry who had served in the colonial West African Frontier Force. He was stationed at Ankpa, where he married Musa's mother, an Igala woman. Musa was therefore born into a family whose story itself reflected the interwoven histories of Northern and Southern Nigeria. In 1954, as a teenager,...

MISSING PERSON The Adamawa State Police Command wishes to notify the general public of a missing person: Name: FATIMA SALIHU MAI ABAROTA, popularly known as “Diddi” Age: 19 years Address: Garba Ibrahim Memorial Academy, Dougirei Date & Time Last Seen: 13/09/2026 at about 07:30hrs Description: Complexion: Dark Dress: Long purple Jalbal She left home this morning, and all efforts to trace her whereabouts have proved abortive. The Command appeals to members of the public with useful information that could assist in locating and reuniting her with her family to kindly report at the nearest Police Station or contact the following numbers: 07037910010, 08037509730 Your cooperation will be highly appreciated. Signed: SP SULEIMAN YAHAYA NGUROJE, ANIPR Police Public Relations Officer For: Commissioner of Police Adamawa State Command

• Former Vice President of Nigeria  An Arewa Voice Asks: "Where Are The Companies You Collapsed?" A video is trending from the North. Not a politician. Not a party spokesperson. Just an angry Arewa man in a yellow babanriga, speaking directly to camera.  His message was simple and devastating:   "If Nigeria were divided today, poverty would kpai people in the North." And then he asked the question no one in the opposition wants to answer. THE LIST THAT SHAMES A GENERATION  The man didn’t shout slogans. He listed names. Dates. Places. Over 44 companies.   "I'm asking Atiku. I'm asking El-Rufai. I'm asking Obasanjo. Where are those companies?" He went down the list:   - Nigerian Paper Mills, Kwara - Collapsed 2005   - Lafiagi Sugar Company, Kwara - Collapsed 2005   - Nigerian Bottling Company, Kano/Kaduna/Plateau/Borno - Collapsed 2004   - Kaduna Fertilizer Company - Collapsed 2002   - Ariwa Textil...

I have known Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai since 1972. I was one year his senior.  We were students of Barewa College, Zaria, one of the country's foremost institutions of learning and, for generations of Northern Nigerian boys, an institution that shaped not only our education but also our character, outlook and understanding of public service. My knowledge of El-Rufai did not begin with politics. It did not begin with his appointment to government. It did not begin with his tenure as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory or Governor of Kaduna State. I knew him before he became El-Rufai the public figure. I knew him as a young Barewa student, "the giant", as he was fondly referred. That distinction is important. Over the years, I have watched his remarkable transformation from a young student into a quantity surveyor, businessman, public administrator, reformer, minister, governor and one of the most controversial, but undoubtedly consequential, figures in contemporary Nigeri...

Northern Nigeria Perspective Quarterly Journal of Policy, Politics & People VOL. 1 • SPECIAL ISSUE ENDORESED BY ADC PUBLISHED: AUGUST 2026 His Excellency Alhaji (Dr.) Atiku Abubakar, GCON - Waziri Adamawa and Former Vice President of Nigeria THE AGENDA TO RESCUE NIGERIA COME 2027 Restoring Stability, Rebuilding Education, & Igniting Economic Prosperity From the Desk of the Coordinator Dear Readers, As Nigeria approaches the critical political crossroads of 2027, Northern Nigeria urgently requires a media platform that is bold, analytical, and uncompromisingly committed to our region’s development. This special edition of Northern Nigeria Perspective —our premier issue endorsed by the African Democratic Congress —was born out of necessity. For years, our country...

The Middle Belt Forum’s 17 August 2026 statement on the Federal Government’s cattle-ranching policy is troubling not because concerns about land acquisition, consultation, compensation or security are illegitimate, but because it frames them within a doctrine of ethnic territorial ownership. At its core is a claim that must be rejected: that parts of Nigeria belong exclusively to particular ethnic groups and that other Nigerians may be treated as outsiders regardless of citizenship or constitutional rights. This is inconsistent with the Constitution and with the region’s complex history. It seems to have been a page extracted right out of a Stone Age Manuscript!  2. The portrayal of Adamawa, Taraba and parts of Plateau State as exclusively indigenous Middle Belt territory from which Fulani people are historical outsiders is a historical and political revisionism. The Fulani are not strangers to these areas any more than other ethnic groups. In Adamawa and Taraba in par...

================================================================================              URGENT MEDICAL APPEAL FOR MY FORMER DRIVER ================================================================================ Dear Friends, Associates, and Philanthropists, I am writing to seek your urgent support for Suleiman Abubakar, who served loyally as my personal driver from 2005 until recently, when severe vision loss forced his disengagement. Suleiman is 40 years old, a husband to Rukayya, and the sole provider for their six (6) young children. • Abubakar Suleiman (patient) • Referral  📋 The Medical Situation He has been diagnosed with advanced Glaucoma and issued an urgent referral from Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital, Yola to the National Eye Center, Kaduna for specialized testing and potential surgery to prevent total, permanent blindness. 💰 Financial Estimate Medical Bills (Tests, Surgery, Drugs): ₦1,550,000...

In May, 2013, I wrote an article titled “*Co-Relation Between Democracy, Poverty and Insurgency in Nigeria*” which central essence was to argue that Nigeria’s persistent insurgencies and insecurity are fundamentally rooted in the failure of democratic governance to deliver social justice, equitable distribution of economic wealth and credible political participation, rather than being driven solely by religion, region or ethnicity. I explained that lasting national security could only be achieved through inclusive economic development, reduction of poverty and inequality, and genuine democratic reforms that restore public trust in government.  2. Between 2013 when I wrote that article and now, the insecurity and violence have metastasized across the country proportionate to the increase in leadership failures over the years at all levels of government. The present discourse, therefore, is an epilogue to that article. In other words, it is a treatise on the nexus between...

Official documents exclusively obtained by Saturday PUNCH have cast fresh doubt on the Presidency’s insistence that the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council never existed. The documents reveal that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation received, acknowledged and acted on correspondence submitted in the council’s name months before the Presidency publicly disowned it. Specifically, the SGF’s office formally processed and forwarded a request by the council’s self-styled Director-General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, seeking office accommodation from recovered Federal Government properties through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The correspondence, dated November 21, 2024, was signed by the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office, Nnamdi Maurice Mbaeri, on behalf of the SGF. Attached to it was Adeyemi’s November 7, 2024, request for office accommodation for the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council....