Opinion

While all politicians exaggerate, US President Joe Biden’s claim that his proposed $3.5 trillion spending package “costs zero dollars” rises to a higher plane, and Americans aren’t buying it. Even if the legislation was fully covered by tax increases, the costs for the economy would be significant. US President Joe Biden insists that his $3.5 trillion ($5 trillion without the budget gimmicks) “human infrastructure” bill “costs zero dollars” – nothing, nil, nada. While every president makes foolish statements, this must be the most economically illiterate presidential utterance since Jimmy Carter’s demand that the US Federal Reserve lower interest rates in…
Political magic has become a staple diet of governance in postcolonial Africa. Why tell a simple lie when a more complicated lie will suffice? Why remonstrate with the truth when you know that dispelling and dispersing it with a canister of lies is a more effective and direct solution? When a whole Minister of Information, a man who is not always known for fidelity to the truth or loyalty to inconvenient facts, begins to moan and mutter about being bullied by the press, you begin to wonder whether the Oro-born master of dissimulation has taken the biggest flight of fancy…
The Anambra elections have come and gone but the reverberations will continue for some time to come. The “Igbo party”, APGA, trounced the APC and PDP combined, with the APGA candidate, Charles Soludo, winning with a wide margin that surpassed the combined votes of the APC and PDP. The other parties, except the APC candidate Andy Uba, appeared to have accepted the result but Uba is spitting fire and has threatened court action to retrieve what he described as his stolen mandate! Some politicians! But never put anything past our politicians and never take their threats as empty! Who could…
At No 9, Rumuibekwe Road in Port Harcourt on November 10, 1995, the devil sat in a corner, having a saturnalia. No one could see him. He wore dark goggles, donning the uniform of a five-star Army General, wrapped up in a huge celebratory mood. His arch-enemy, Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists had just been hanged at the Port Harcourt Prison. Inside No 9, Rumuibekwe, family members sat on the hood of parked disused cars, weeping profusely, others holding their heads in anguish. By that instant the most recently widowed woman in the world, Hauwa Saro-Wiwa, was…
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee ~ Isaiah 41:10a. Introduction: Life is a journey, excellence is the target. However, until you receive supernatural assistance, people are bound to see your sweat. Why? The universe is too complex for any human being to exist here without supernatural help. Man's search for supernatural help always begins at the point where he realizes that he is faced with a resistance beyond his power, and that his needs are beyond his human capabilities. Happily, this…
Many Christians are still living frustrating lives. We cannot live lives of victory. We cannot stop smoking. We cannot stop drinking. We cannot stop fornicating. We cannot stop losing our temper. We find it difficult to forgive and forget. We still have ungodly thoughts. We are still held in the bondage of masturbation. We are addicted to pornography. We still find ourselves telling lies. And all the time, the devil keeps telling us that we are not Christians. Our hearts continue to condemn us, and we come to believe that we are hypocrites. In many respects, the church has been…
It is possible that the first contact was made in 1601 between the French and the peoples of “Guinee” – the name for the lands we know today as Nigeria. Only a few years before, the then Protestant King of France Henry had devised a plan for adventurer Francois Pyrard de Laval to navigate the “Ethiopian Sea”, then onwards around the Cape of Good Hope in search of new markets and trade. Four hundred years later, much has changed. (Today there are more Protestants amongst Nigeria’s 200 million population than there are people in France. Maps, and geography, have improved:…
In Nigeria, oil has been more of a curse than a blessing. Weak institutions of state and poor governance in managing the vast revenues have led the country to fail to realise its full potential in a textbook example of what academics know as the “resource curse”. First coined by Richard Auty in 1994, the term refers to the inability of nations to use their windfall wealth to improve their population’s lot and bolster their economies. The rich natural resources bring corruption and poverty to a nation, rather than positive economic development and, counterintuitively, these countries end up with lower…
Friday, 12 November 2021 05:49

Facebook's foreign disasters - Eric Posner

A long line of ugly Americans, mostly government officials, have believed that applying simple formulas based on idealized versions of US institutions could convert long-suffering places into Western-style consumer utopias. Today, the ugliest of all Americans is not a public official but a private citizen, Mark Zuckerberg. “The ugly American,” the title of a novel published in 1958 by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, entered the language to refer to boorish American officials abroad who sought to improve the lives of natives without taking the trouble to learn their language, culture, or needs. A long line of ugly Americans, mostly…
Friday, 12 November 2021 05:48

This thing called aging - Azu Ishiekwene

The cold blast of the air conditioner from the room hit me by surprise as I opened the door. I wasn’t expecting a draught from inside at eight on a damp morning. But there was my cousin under the duvet, hugging what seemed like a pillow as he snuggled diagonally across the bed, deeply asleep.I grabbed the electric iron from the floor right next to the standing fan, which was purring at a speed that made the room even cooler, and left quickly. How could he be sleeping so comfortably with the AC at a cold blast on a wet…
September 20, 2024

PZ Cussons set to exit Nigeria, following trend of departing multinationals

British consumer goods giant PZ Cussons Plc is contemplating a partial or complete withdrawal from…
September 21, 2024

Edo gov election holds today amid INEC’s integrity issues, security concerns

As the 2024 Edo State governorship election kicks off today, all eyes are on the…
September 22, 2024

If you answer 'always' to these 7 questions, you’re more resilient than most

We can expect to face a growing number of setbacks, distractions, and challenges in our…
September 21, 2024

Father installs surveillance camera on daughter’s head to keep an eye on her

A Pakistani father fearing for his daughter’s safety made her wear a surveillance camera on…
September 16, 2024

Nearly 300 prisoners escape Maiduguri prison after floods

Devastating floods collapsed walls at a jail in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria early last week,…
September 22, 2024

What to know after Day 941 of Russia-Ukraine war

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine says it hit two Russian munitions depots overnight Ukraine said on Saturday…
August 28, 2024

New study says China uses 80% artificial sand. Here’s why that’s a big deal

The world is running out of sand. About 50 billion tons of sand and gravel…
September 22, 2024

Dubois knocks down, knocks out Joshua to retain IBF heavyweight world title

In an astonishing upset, Daniel Dubois delivered a career-defining performance, defeating former two-time world heavyweight…

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