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Opinion

Thursday, 22 July 2021 05:43

Bandits don’t shoot down airplanes - Abimbola Adelakun

After reading the narration of the experience of Nigeria Air Force officer, Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo, who survived an air attack in Zamfara State, do apologists like Sheik Ahmad Gumi, Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, and their southern minion, Joe Igbokwe, still believe that the bandits are merely doing business? For a while now, they have desperately tried to ameliorate the gravity of their incessant attacks by claiming those people were just “bandits.” But bandits do not shoot down airplanes. It is no small effort to direct “intense enemy fire” at a jet in the sky. If they have heat-seeking…

Wednesday, 21 July 2021 05:45

What’s the worth of flood alerts? - Kayode Komolafe

From Lagos to Jalingo, flood news has been reported in parts of Nigeria in the last few days. Streets and neighbourhoods have been submerged after intense rainfalls. Homes have been destroyed with farmlands devasted in rural areas. The socio-economic cost of the destruction is huge. The implications for health, welfare and food security are immense. In Taraba State, at least 4,000 persons have been reportedly displaced in the last two days. About 300 houses have been damaged with some of them now under water in some places in Jalingo, the state capital. Taraba’s northern neighbour, Adamawa, is not spared by…

Wednesday, 21 July 2021 05:43

1442 AH/2021: Eid-Ul-Adha and the blessings of Hajj - Murtadha Gusau

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful All Praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Allah, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, peace and blessings on him, is…

Tuesday, 20 July 2021 06:08

Travails of Sunday Igboho: A veiled reprisal attack? - Michael West

Sunday Adeyemo - Igboho is under attacks not because he's championing the cause of Yoruba Nation but for daring to challenge and successfully curtailed further intrusion, invasion and onslaughts by marauding Fulani herdsmen in their criminal quest to conquer and dominate Yoruba land. Any other excuses or reasons are mere adjuncts. Igboho had led successful rallies in other five states of the southwest. No reports of violence or assaults. There was no hijacking by hoodlums or political thugs. The previous rallies were peacefully organised and conducted. Therefore, trying to make Lagos look like an exception is uncalled for. In the…

Sunday, 18 July 2021 05:51

Southwest governors and constitutional amendment... - Bola Bolawole

According to reports I read on Cable News, an online publication superintended by seasoned journalist and influential columnist, Simon Kolawole, governors of the South-West states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, and Ondo have made representations regarding on-going efforts by the National Assembly to review the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended). Note that the groundswell of opinion is that the sickness of the 1999 Constitution is such that cannot be cured by any amendment, however sweeping. Another generally-aired opinion is that the vested interests served by the present skewed and patently-flawed Constitution will not allow any meaningful amendment that will…

Sunday, 18 July 2021 05:50

Lugard as Adefarasin’s Electoral Act amendment devil - Festus Adedayo

Seventy six years after his death on April 11, 1945 and cremation at the Woking Crematorium, Woking Borough in Surrey, England, poor Frederick John Dealtry Lugard has been killed many times thereafter by Nigerians. Though he died peacefully at the age of 87, having been born on January 22, 1858, this soldier, administrator and author, born in Fort St. George, Madras, India, raised at Worcester and educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, has remained one of the most vilified colonial officers in Nigeria. His presiding over Nigeria’s incongruous matrimonial procedure on January 1, 1914 is perceived to be the…

Sunday, 18 July 2021 05:47

Holy Spirit power from above - Taiwo Akinola

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high ~ Luke 24:49. Introduction: Now is the time for us to verily join the fresh move of the Holy Spirit in our days. The Kingdom of God must be here and now! Too many people are hurting and, in many instances, feeling hopeless in our world today. But, I can boldly confirm that all these only point to the fact that the world is actually groaning for a fresh outpouring of the…

Sunday, 18 July 2021 05:45

Article of faith: The root of all evil - Femi Aribisala

Is it good to go to school; get a good job; build your own house and have lots of money? Not according to Jesus. These things are highly valued by men. But Jesus teaches that: “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” (Luke 16:15). Therefore, it is not surprising that Jesus had none of these accomplishments as a man. He did not go to school. He was a lowly carpenter. He did not build His own house. He was not a rich man. In Jesus’ doctrine, the cares of this life are the preoccupations of Satan…

Friday, 16 July 2021 05:54

Igboho: The iconic symbol of Yoruba resistance - Tola Adeniyi

Much has been said and written about the crude, brutish, uncivilized, cowardly and roguish assault on the Ibadan residence and person of the globally acclaimed symbol of Yoruba Resistance Sunday Adeyemo famously known as Igboho, on the night of Thursday July 1, 2021. Combined forces of the Abuja Central Government inclusive of a detachment of the Military, the DSS, and alleged French-speaking mercenaries reportedly broke into Adeyemo’s house like armed robbers in the night and inflicted horrendous terrorism and mayhem on both the premises and all the occupants in the house including cats. Unarmed persons were killed and several persons…

Friday, 16 July 2021 05:52

Lauretta Onochie as metaphor - Azu Ishiekwene

The refusal of the Senate to confirm Lauretta Onochie, President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominee as national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is a triumph of public opinion. But the Senate has tried to disguise it otherwise. In response to growing criticisms that the National Assembly has become Buhari’s rubber stamp, the Senate has framed the rejection as a violation of the Federal Character principle, and more important, as proof of its legislative independence. The truth is nuanced. It is correct to say that the nonsensical conundrum of where they were born versus where their partner comes from is…

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Friday, 16 July 2021 05:51

Solitude: A ravaging silent killer - Michael West

People living in solitary and lonely lifestyle are dying daily. The death rate is increasing but silently. Quite a number of such deaths have been recorded in January alone. The situation is worse for those who have attitudinal or relationship issues with their family members and neighbours as nobody asks after them even days or weeks after they're not seen around. To loners with short fuse, neighbours keep their distance for fear of being snubbed or engaged in quarrels. A senior lecturer in a federal university died in his official residence without anybody knowing. His family lived abroad and he…

Thursday, 15 July 2021 05:37

England’s heartbreak at Wembley - Bola Bolawole

Euro 2020 has come and gone but the reverberations are bound to continue for some time to come. To start with, Covid-19 ensured that the competition, which should have been held in 2020, got transferred to 2021. While Italy, the unexpected winners, may continue to moon glide and walk tall with their shoulders held high, the English would still be wondering what hit them. They got so close but missed it – and on home turf for that matter! This was one instance when home advantage and the support of a vociferous home crowd amounted to little. England improved on…

Wednesday, 14 July 2021 05:45

My ‘unpopular’ propositions - Edwin Madunagu

Several times in the last ten years, I have compelled myself to discontinue public exploration, and application to Nigeria, of the concepts of “power bloc” and “popular-democratic restructuring”. These are concepts in which a another concept – “the national question” or “ethnic nationality question” – plays an important, though neither dominant nor decisive role. I was, in fact, at a point, considering classifying these concepts and closely related ones as “unpopular” in a spirit that reminds me of Bertrand Russell’s “Unpopular Essays”. However, whereas Bertrand Russell, in labeling his 1950 collection of essays “unpopular”, was condescending, abusive and cynical, I…

Wednesday, 14 July 2021 05:43

Pandemics and political performance - Francis Fukuyama & Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a laboratory for testing different governance systems in the face of a public-health crisis, ultimately revealing massive variance in country performance. For example, countries in East Asia (China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan) tended to do a better job of controlling the pandemic than did many countries in the Americas and Europe. But these outcomes are not about democratic versus authoritarian government, as some have argued. Among East Asia’s high performers are authoritarian states as well as strong and vibrant democracies. Nor is the difference wholly due to economic resources or public health expertise, considering…

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