ELVIRA’S PEN

The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has urged the National Assembly to expedite passage of the National Alcohol Control Policy Bill to support the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in its nationwide enforcement of the ban on sale of alcoholic beverages packaged in sachets and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. RDI made the demand as NAFDAC teams commenced enforcement of the ban on the products in Nigeria's six geopolitical zones, in an exercise targeting markets, motor parks, retail outlets, bars and other distribution channels where it is identifying, seizing and removing the products from circulation. The House of Representatives passed the Bill for an Act to Provide for the Control, Regulation and Reduction of Alcohol-Related Harm in Nigeria on May 7, 2026 for a second reading. It targets the production, marketing, and consumption of alcohol to protect minors, and is sponsored by Hon. Oluwatimehin Adelegbe. In a statement issued i...

by Erabanabari Theophilus   The designation of the Kporghor Community in Tai Local Government Area as a site for emergency detonations by oilfield servicing companies suggests a troubling trend. This marks the second time the community has been used as a demolition site for degraded logistics; in 2024, the blasts were carried out by Baker Hughes Company Limited, and currently, in 2026, by Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited. This disturbing cycle raises a critical question: which corporate giant is next in line to clear its hazardous waste on Ogoni soil? This hazardous process of open-air detonation only becomes an "emergency" because oilfield servicing companies store volatile inventories until they pass their safe shelf life. Once these materials degrade, multinational firms are forced to trigger urgent, highly regulated disposal protocols to avert catastrophic accidental detonations or toxic chemical leakages of commercial explosives, such as perforating charges an...

A GOOD TIME TO START - Elvira Jordan For over a week now I have been lying in a hospital bed.  (If you’re tempted to stop this message and check up on me, no need. I am very much okay. 😁) It’s not really funny being confined to a place, especially for a wakaholic like me. It has indeed been a humbling experience for me. It has given me the opportunity to appreciate good health, life, and our everyday abilities even more. It is so funny how many lessons I have learnt just by sitting still for a while. This past week has taught me a lot and has helped me to go through some thoughts that I have been putting off. It has also forced me to review some parts of my life I may have ignored; to rethink some of my decisions, to restrategise, to replan and to restructure my cards.  Once in a while, my world tends to experience these kinds of pause; giving me a moment to do some self reflection and see some aspects of my life that my usual busy routine will not let me see.  A good ex...

Before Nigeria became known as Africa's oil giant... before pipelines stretched across the Niger Delta... before oil money shaped politics, cities, and the economy... the land told a very different story. For generations, communities across the Niger Delta lived by farming, fishing, and trading along winding creeks. Life moved with the rhythm of the rivers. Beneath their feet lay a treasure so valuable that no one could have imagined the future it would create. The search for that treasure began long before Nigeria gained independence. In the early 1900s, foreign companies arrived, convinced that the country's soil held vast petroleum reserves. But finding oil was anything but easy. They battled dense forests, endless swamps, tropical diseases, floods, and the disruption of two World Wars. Expedition after expedition ended in disappointment. Wells were drilled... only to come up dry. Years turned into decades, and many began to believe Nigeria simply wasn't meant to become ...