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OOPA Seeks Stronger Collaboration With INEC Ahead Of Osun 2026 Guber Election

  As the August 15 Osun governorship election draws near the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola has assured that Commission would offer full cooperation to media practitioners. Mrs Babalola also assured that the August 15 governorship election in the state will be credible, free, inclusive and transparent. The Osun INEC REC gave this assurance during a courtesy visit by the Osun Online Publishers Association, OOPA, to the INEC State Office, in Osogbo on Monday While restating that the media is a critical stakeholder in election, INEC and the society, she said, "If there is no media the society can not be informed. And when it comes to election matters, there is misinformation and disinformation and the media is needed to correct these anomalies." She also assured that she will work with the media community to ensure a credible, free, fair, inclusive and transparent governorship election.  IN...
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The Shadow of Bias: When World Rules Rewrite Nigerian Dreams

 





Recently, Punch reported the heartbreaking story of Ridwan Akinfenwa, a Nigerian software engineer who lost a $260,000-per-year international CTO job. He had signed the contract, celebrated the breakthrough, only to receive a sudden email: his offer was withdrawn because of “regulatory constraints” tied to his nationality.


It is not the first time, and sadly may not be the last. As the name of Nigeria echoes around the world, from those who play in different leagues -- from Floro to PsKemi -- to those who have migrated and mingled with races in the UK, the Bahamas, and across the globe, it is difficult not to see an emerging generation of Nigerians who sought greener pastures, who nationalized elsewhere, or who now carry dual citizenship.


Most of us make these choices to break through the walls set before us. Yet those grinding hard daily at home still face the debacle of a politics and a skewed system that elevates mediocrity above merit, only to be met again by secret, coded language that quietly terminates their offers when it is time to compete on the world stage.


When President Donald Trump once vowed to evacuate illegal immigrants, he never singled out Nigerians. Every country in the world has those who bring disrepute to its name. Why then should Nigerians, talented dreamers breaking barriers bear the weight of collective suspicion?


My own experiences within West Africa show the same: even here on the continent, Nigeria is perceived as a threat, perhaps because of our sheer audacity to dream, our insistence on breaking barriers.


This hatred against the Nigerian passport, this suspicion of the Nigerian name, is why I speak today. To the world: stop the bias.


Where is the love? Where is the unity? Why must every dreaming Nigerian be judged not by their talent, but by the paper that bears their nationality? A Nigerian will struggle, sacrifice, and build systems with the hope that one day the world will celebrate their success. Yet too often, they are disqualified, reinforcing the stereotype, feeding the narrative of the few bad eggs.


But if the world keeps humbling its best Nigerians at the vestibule of success, what happens when the good, weary of rejection, finally turn bad? Then the world itself grows more Hobbesian, brutish, divided, and unsafe.


— Abioye Tosin Lawrence, Publisher of Oriontimes Online Newspaper and author of the upcoming memoir Voices from the Fire: My Journey Through a Hollow Empire, frontier of the HATE-AGAINST-NIGERIA Campaign.

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