As the year ends with an undelivered impeachment led entirely by House Democrats, both parties fighting over how a trial should be conducted with Senate Republicans in control, and the public still split on whether President Trump should have even been impeached in the first place, we have an opportunity to reflect on how we got here. How is it that after months of hearings in this proceeding the public remains so divided on the facts and standards advocated by our elected leaders in Washington? Some contend the blame falls entirely with Trump, whose actions left Democrats no choice but…

For humanity over all, life just keeps getting better. If you’re depressed by the state of the world, let me toss out an idea: In the long arc of human history, 2019 has been the best year ever. The bad things that you fret about are true. But it’s also true that since modern humans emerged about 200,000 years ago, 2019 was probably the year in which children were least likely to die, adults were least likely to be illiterate and people were least likely to suffer excruciating and disfiguring diseases. Every single day in recent years, another 325,000 people…

Pat Utomi, professor of political economy and management in this interview with Charles Okonji offers a gloomy prognosis about the state of Nigeria’s economy. Excerpts: What is your projection for 2020? I will tell emphatically that 2020 would be a very challenging year for Nigeria when you look at the terrible economic performance of the country in the recent years. Unfortunately, most of them are self-inflicted. We keep focusing on such basic macro issues whereas the real problem with the Nigerian economy is fundamental, structural, basic institutional and cultural base. I keep reminding people that the problem of the Nigerian…

Nigerian Senate under the leadership of Ahmed Lawn has fallen. It has completely surrendered to Major General Muhammadu Buhari and needs to be saved from itself before it does irreparable damage to the meaning of checks and balances in a constitutional democracy. Since Mr Lawan emerged as Senate President, he has left no one in doubt by his utterances and body language that the National Assembly, particularly, the Senate is an extension of the executive arm of government. Not many paid attention then when some of his colleagues who knew him well cautioned Nigerians that he was a yes-man and…