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Opinion

Thursday, 15 October 2020 23:26

#EndSARS: Have our children gone mad? - Azu Ishiekwene

You’ll have to go back nearly a decade to find anything resembling what has been happening across the country in the last one week. Back then, civil society deeply offended by trillions of naira stolen by government officials and campaign donors to the ruling party in the name of petrol subsidy mounted protests that rocked the country and nearly brought President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to its knees. As it turned out, nearly didn’t kill that bird. It, however, triggered #BringBackOurGirls, which sent waves of protests, as far away as the US White House, against the cavalier way that Jonathan’s government…

Thursday, 15 October 2020 23:25

Families in tears, anguish over SARS atrocities - Michael West

The appearance of scruffy looking, gun trotting rude guys on patrol in hijacked commercial or private vehicles do send jitters down the spines of Nigerians especially the youths. It is not because there's any reported crime or breakdown of law and order but for the likelihood of being caught as preys in the web of ‘unquestionable’ Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, operatives who are on the prowl for who to extort, dehumanise and rape. Not a few Nigerian families have suffered losses due to reckless extra judicial killings by SARS operatives on the pretext of combating crimes. How they conveniently operate…

Thursday, 15 October 2020 03:12

Ondo election: A post-mortem - Bola Bolawole

The Ondo governorship election has come and gone but the reverberations continue. Days after, it was talk-of-the-town everywhere in Akure, the state capital. Akure wore a gloomy look and carried on like someone bereaved. It is obvious – and understandably, too – that most Akure people did not like the win of the incumbent governor, Rotimi Akeredolu of All Progressives Congress. Eyitayo Jegede of Peoples Democratic Party, who came second, is an Akure son. So it is obvious why he won landslide in the two Akure local governments and the adjoining Ifedore local government but lost the other 15 local…

Thursday, 15 October 2020 03:11

From SARS to SWAT is bad faith - Abimbola Adelakun

On Tuesday, Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced a new police outfit to replace the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police. Given how vehemently the police had previously argued that it was impossible to dissolve SARS before they capitulated to public pressure, the haste with which they have replaced SARS is worrying. What exactly has changed within the 48 hours between when Adamu disbanded SARS and set up its replacement named SWAT? Most likely, SWAT will still employ existing SARS personnel and their existing infrastructure. The rather hasty switch from SARS to SWAT suggests that the IG and…

Wednesday, 14 October 2020 10:44

#EndSARS: The revolution is coming! - ‘Sina Kawonise

It was sometimes in February 2012. A former military head of state came on a condolence visit to a former boss of mine who had, a month earlier, lost his father. One of the two surviving daughters of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, was in attendance. We sat round a dinning table, discussing the deteriorating socio-economic conditions of Nigerians. Then, the host mentioned the possibility of a Ghana-type revolution led by Jerry Rawlings in Nigeria. The former head of state retorted off-handedly that there won’t be revolution in Nigeria because the country had no Jerry Rawlings! Such, typically, is the…

Monday, 12 October 2020 04:44

What should corporations do? - Raghuram G. Rajan

For all the excitement about corporate "stakeholders" and "purpose-driven" firms, the new mode of capitalism is simply a repackaging of the old. Successful companies will continue to focus on the value of their shares over the long term, while avoiding the risks of wading into areas where they don't belong. With the Covid-19 pandemic reinforcing concerns about economic inequality, left-behind communities, discrimination, and climate change, there is increasing pressure on corporations to do more than sell a good widget at an affordable price. Responding to the changing public mood, the US Business Roundtable declared last year that, “Each of our…

Sunday, 11 October 2020 05:23

#ENDSARS, police impunity and Nero’s guitar - Festus Adedayo

As I made to angrily start the car, he howled, “Move an inch from there! If I no waste you now and dem bury you today, call me a bastard!” I froze. His voice clattered like pebbles jangled over one another. That word singed my flesh like a hot whiplash. He had his gun cocked on the instant, the right hand finger caressing the holster and the left playing menacingly on the gun’s midriff. His eyes dilated like a piece of red-hot coal. It was as if I had received a jab from a cruel nurse’s syringe. Or a hot…

Sunday, 11 October 2020 05:21

The Lordship of Jesus Christ (1) - Taiwo Akinola

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ...... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father ~ Philippians 2:9-11. Introduction: The subject of the lordship of Jesus Christ is a most crucial issue in Christian living. It is an essential assessment that determines who is a real Christian believer, and how relevant a man will ever be to the Ultimate Plan of God for the ages. And, yes, it is…

Sunday, 11 October 2020 05:19

Baba Lekki stirs the hornet’s nest - Tatalo Alamu

To Ojodu-Onikolobo and its quaint Town Hall where Baba Lekki is fielding questions on the state of the nation with the indefatigable Okon acting as political batman and enforcer .As the friendship and collaboration between the two deepened and matured, Okon had come to accord the enigmatic contrarian a wary reverence for his sharp intellect and devil may care attitude to constituted authority. The old man on the other hand adored his ward for his waywardness and petty villainies. This wet and soggy morning as tempers rose in the background as a result of recent increases in petroleum and energy…

Saturday, 10 October 2020 05:09

The why, how and when of restructuring Nigeria - Olarinre Salako

I believe the calls for restructuring of Nigeria’s socio-political system should be fundamentally driven by the need to re-define the federating units for improved efficiency and devolution of more responsibilities and resources, lean and cost-effective government at all levels, effective leadership recruitment process, sustainable infrastructural development including education and healthcare, and development of Nigerians’ technical know-how to engender industrialization, and institutionalism that will help reduce corruption drastically, and improve security, among others. Agitation for restructuring to recognize ethnic identity may be one of the ways to achieve those fundamental reasons stated above. However, already, the current federating states are as…

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Friday, 09 October 2020 04:52

Adeboye didn’t go far enough - Azu Ishiekwene

A major headliner last week was the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Enoch Adeboye, calling for restructuring. He didn’t just call for it: he also sprang a surprise. According to news reports, he warned that if nothing was done to restructure, the country might break up, even though he didn’t pray for it to happen.You had to read it twice and pinch yourself to believe that it was Adeboye. It was like the Pope giving a hint that the Church could lose its female members if it didn’t amend the Code of Canon or the Ordinatio…

Friday, 09 October 2020 04:51

Sex worker: From ‘dirty deal to real deal’ - Michael West

No sane mind would wish to be known for wrongdoing or to become an epitome of anti-social orientation. Vicissitudes of life have a way of messing up one's virtue, dream and purpose. It takes providence to get it right where there's no helper or counsellor. Society is not kind to the unlucky folks. They are derided as weak, lacking in wisdom, flippant and given to frivolity, whereas those seen as bad examples of social maladies may not have chosen the path for themselves willingly. Sex work (prostitution) is an immoral trade. It is a transaction in which women offer themselves…

Friday, 09 October 2020 04:47

Post-pandemic geopolitics - Joseph S. Nye, Jr

Estimating the long-term effect of the current pandemic is not an exact prediction of the future, but an exercise in weighing probabilities and adjusting current policies. When envisioning the international order in 2030, five scenarios stand out. There is no single future until it happens, and any effort to envision geopolitics in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic must include a range of possible futures. I suggest five plausible futures in 2030, but obviously others can be imagined. The end of the globalized liberal order. The world order established by the United States after World War II created a framework…

Wednesday, 07 October 2020 05:26

In case they didn’t tell the president - Dan Agbese

In the last one week or so, some very eminent Nigerians, either individually or in groups, have issued statements on the unacceptable state of the nation. These are men who have paid their dues to the country as public officers and in their various professional capacities in the military, the civil service and the academia. They are not men who can mistake a pussy cat for a wolf. Nor are they men who want to hug the limelight. They have hugged the limelight for most of their lives. They are patriotic and responsible men for whom it would be the…

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