Making globalization more inclusive will require policies that help African economies to converge with high-income countries. African policymakers should focus on accelerating regional integration, bridging gaps in labor skills and digital infrastructure, and creating a mechanism to own and regulate Africa’s digital data. The current backlash against globalization, most notably from working-class citizens in advanced economies who are worried about stagnant wages and insecure jobs, highlights how the benefits of global economic integration were oversold, and its costs undercounted. But the effects of globalization on Africa and its citizens have received far less attention, even though the continent is projectedto…

A couple of weeks ago in Abuja, a medical doctor, Daniel Eitokpah, had attempted to revive one Arowosaiye, said to be a gospel artist with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, who had just hanged himself. Eitokpah, a guest in the neighbourhood, had been alerted to the scene by shouts of Arowosaiye committing suicide and had sprinted there, in honour of his Hippocratic Oath. The man, who had embraced the cowardly act of escapism from the troubles of this world, rather than face them like a valiant, however died while Eitokpah was performing his medical acts of resuscitation. Trust men…

President Muhammadu Buhari made world history yesterday when he probably became the first elected President in the world in modern times to be inaugurated into office without giving an inaugural speech. He gave no reason why he did not deliver an in inaugural speech. Mr Buhari was sworn into a second term in office by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mr Tanko Muhammad in a low key ceremony which kept to time and ended by 11:22 am. In USA (from where we borrowed much of our current democratic practice), every American President has given an inaugural address both for his first…

Conspiracy theories are the palm oil of Nigeria’s politics. They give taste to falsehood, tension, fear and unrest. And often, they are ignorantly eaten, regurgitated and spewed by the unwary. On December 11, 2013, former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote a caustic missive entitled, ‘Before it is too late’, searing former President Jonathan and his administration. He alleged that Jonathan was “clannish” and that he was promoting an Ijaw agenda. He also alleged that the immediate past president was arming militants, and that he had pencilled down 1000 people for crucifixion. Obasanjo surmised that Jonathan was training a special killer squad…